Community members upset with public notice about COVID-19 outbreak at Sask. Hutterite colonies

People from a Hutterite colony in southwest Saskatchewan are upset their community has been identified by the provincial health authority as the centre of a COVID-19 outbreak.

On Wednesday night, the Saskatchewan Health Authoritysaid two members of a rural household in a Hutterite colony tested positive for COVID-19 last week. An additional 14 cases connected with an outbreak at that colony and another were confirmed on Wednesday.

The health authority did not name the communities specifically, but did indicate they are in the rural municipality of Maple Creek.

The health authority said contact tracing and active case-finding efforts are underway. The cases are under investigation for possible interprovincial travel to Alberta and within the area.

A spokesperson for one of theHutterite colonies in Maple Creek declined to offer formal comment, but confirmed there was a case in his community.

He said he and other community members were upset by the health authority's decision to identifyHutterite communitiesin Maple Creek as the location of a new COVID-19 outbreak.

On Thursday, Provincial Chief Medical Health Officer Dr. Saqib Shahab said the outbreak notice serves as a way to inform those within the affected colonies, as well as those in the surrounding communities in the rural municipality.

"Whenever there's an outbreak there's a need to be public about that, and there's various reasons for that," Shahab said.

"In this case, it's not just one community, it's several communities that are involved in the outbreak investigation and it involves two provinces."

Shahab encouraged any people who have concerns about being exposed to COVID-19 in the affected area to seek testing.

Strengths and weaknesses

Dr. Anne Huang, a former deputy medical health officer with the province, said tight-knit communities have both strengths and weaknesses when it comes to dealing with situations like a COVID-19 outbreak.

"A strength that we have seen is [that] a community like this has been able to do things to keep the culture and language so they have a strong collective sense of doing things for the greater good," she said.

Huang said with the right education and support, community members will be able to take the appropriate precautions to protect themselves from COVID-19.

Shahab said Thursday that the health authority and the local medical health officer are working with leadership in the colonies, assessing members for symptoms and contacting other colonies who may have interacted with the affected ones.

"This is part of an ongoing investigation and it is important that public health continue to work with those communities to try to get ahead of the outbreak," Shahab said.