COVID-19 poses challenge for remote First Nations
If a member of Muskeg Lake Cree Nation were to fall ill with COVID-19, Jordan Revke, the community’s pandemic coordinator, suspects they would need to travel more than 100 kilometres from home to receive treatment in Saskatoon.
And Revke says he’s not sure how they’d get there.
He says it’s not uncommon for ambulances to take 40 minutes to an hour to arrive in the community.
Nearly a quarter of Muskeg
Lake’s 290 band members who live on reserve are 55 and older and may not be up for a long journey.
“To try to get them there, transportation-wise can be hard on them,” Revke said.
In the meantime, he says the First Nation is looking to designate a space on the reserve for COVID-19 patients in the event that the disease surges and hospitals in Saskatoon are at capacity.
“Just actually trying to find the space or the building to do that is an issue. It might be something we have to tackle and then try to find the dollars for,” he said.
Muskeg Lake Cree Nation is not the only Saskatchewan First Nation far removed from care for COVID-19.
According to a report prepared as part of the Concordia University Institute for Investigative Journalism’s Project Pandemic and mapped using Esri ARCGIS technology, 28 Saskatchewan First Nations, including Muskeg Lake Cree Nation, are located more than 50 kilometres from a hospital designated for COVID-19 care.
The Saskatchewan Health Authority has designated 29 health centres for COVID-19 patients outside Saskatoon and Regina. There are nine in northern Saskatchewan and 20 in rural areas of southern Saskatchewan.
In an emailed statement, the Saskatchewan Ministry of Health said it and the SHA are “confident that people will receive appropriate care in a timely manner.”
The ministry said it understands that Indigenous communities, especially those in northern and remote locations, face greater risks from COVID-19 and that it has been working with First Nations and Metis stakeholders throughout the pandemic.
“Our response to the outbreak situation has been to ensure that the response plan be tailored to the risks posed in the community, in the geographic area, and culturally appropriate for the local population,” the statement said.
Distance from care was not the only concern for First Nations identified by the IIJ’S report.
According to the report, of the 28 First Nations located more than 50 kilometres from a hospital designated for COVID -19 care, six had at least one-third of residents living in overcrowded households, which make it harder to socially distance to prevent the spread of COVID -19.
Four First Nations reached by the IIJ in May also said they did not have enough personal protective equipment. Those First Nations could not be reached for comment this week to see how that situation has changed.
More than 40 per cent of Saskatchewan’s COVID-19 cases have been in people from the far north, despite that region accounting for less than 10 per cent of the province’s population. Many of the cases have been connected to outbreaks in La Loche and in Clearwater River Dene Nation.
It’s impossible to know how many cases of COVID-19 in Saskatchewan have been Indigenous patients because the province does not track health data by race, despite calls from advocates who say it could help identify gaps in care in at-risk communities.