Northern Indigenous communities in Sask. face rising COVID-19 cases

Communities in the Lac La Ronge Indian Band in northern Saskatchewan have high vaccination rates, but despite that, they're facing more new cases of COVID-19 — the first signs of the pandemic's fifth wave in Saskatchewan's north. 

The Omicron coronavirus variant has already shattered pandemic records in Saskatchewan. Case rates were relatively low in northern Indigenous communities — but that feeling of security is fading.

"We are aware that the Omicron variant is making an impact, not only in the province … but including in our communities," said Chief of the Lac La Ronge Indian Band, Tammy Cook-Searson. 

Stanley Mission, a community included in the Lac La Ronge Indian Band and about an hour drive northeast of La Ronge, has impressive vaccination milestones: about 94 per cent people 12 and up have received one dose, Cook-Searson said. 

Stanley Mission also accounts for almost one-fifth of all active COVID-19 cases in the Northern Inter-Tribal Health Authority, and the majority of cases in the Lac La Ronge band with 36 confirmed active cases as of Friday.

Cook-Searson suggested that the Stanley Mission community is confirming more cases of the virus because of its health centre's testing site while other communities, which are showing zero cases, may have people who have tested positive with a rapid antigen test.

Data across the province is skewed because provincial guidelines advise asymptomatic people who test positive on a rapid antigen test to forgo a PCR test (which is how the province documents cases). 

Cook-Searson said she's heard from band members who tried to book a PCR test, but were stalled by extended 811 wait times.

Now that the provincial government is using hospital rates as the key indicator for COVID-19, she's concerned for the health of her community members

"Within our communities we have a lot of people [who] are immunocompromised … even though you're double vaccinated with a booster dose you can still get COVID," she said. "We don't know what the outcomes will be."

In northern Indigenous communities, case counts and death counts per capita were often twice as high or worse when compared with the rest of the province in recent waves.

Dr. Nnamdi Ndubuka, chief medical officer of the Northern Inter-Tribal Health Authority, said while active cases have appeared low, the number of daily new confirmed cases in the north have been steadily increasing.

"It's just a matter of time before we see that exponential increase that we're seeing elsewhere in the province," he said. 

In past pandemic waves, the north typically sees a two-week delay from the effects of COVID-19 in the southern and central communities, Ndubuka said.