`This is serious and real,' recovering bishop says

When Bishop Michael Hawkins was in the intensive care unit, he thought about the people around him.

Some were attached to ventilators. Some did not speak English as a first language and he worried they felt more alone than he did. Some died on his first night there, he thinks. All of them had COVID-19.

“This is serious and real. I never doubted it,” the Anglican Bishop of Saskatchewan said.

Hawkins, who was discharged after 12 days in hospital and is now recovering at his home in Prince Albert, is urging the public to take the virus seriously.

“I worry a bit, to be honest, about the balance between health and economy or life and economy. People are dying. I have a couple people I know that died in the past week from COVID. Nothing can balance that out,” he said.

He started to feel unwell on Nov. 13 and called 811 several times to try to schedule a test, he said. The next week, his symptoms were so bad he went to hospital; he was tested for COVID-19 and admitted. He later learned he had the virus.

He had just about every textbook symptom of the illness, he said.

“COVID can attack different organs, and I think it sort of went into my heart,” he added. “I have to tell you, this thing laid me pretty low.”

Hawkins is not the only member of his diocese to test positive. He said Diocesan Indigenous Bishop Adam Halkett also contracted the virus from a different source of transmission, illustrating just how widespread it has become.

Hawkins said the Anglican Church took precautions to avoid an outbreak, including mandating mask use before it was required. He still got sick.

“The Sunday after I got sick, I was supposed to do a 60-person service,” he said. It was cancelled, as were all of the church's in-person meetings that week.

Transmission rates are much higher in the north and among Indigenous communities than the rest of the province.

As of Monday, the Northern Inter-tribal Health Authority reported 284 active cases in various northern First Nations communities, not including people who live off reserve.

Hawkins said the isolation of being in hospital is even greater for people who are far from their families and primarily speak Cree, Dene or another Indigenous language instead of English.

“When we opened up the province and the like, it sounded like as long as Saskatoon and Regina had lower numbers, the north didn't really matter. `It's those people up there.' That's how it can feel and sound at times,” he said.

Hawkins said he still feels weak, but is glad to be recovering. He thinks it's time for “bolder” action to limit the spread of the virus, he said.

“That's a particular perspective. But 12 days in the hospital is a particular perspective.”