(file photo/Canadian Press)

By Nicole Reis

LA LOCHE COVID-19 UPDATE

La Loche community under curfew, no new cases

Apr 20, 2020 | 4:52 PM

The northern village of La Loche and Clearwater River Dene Nation are under a curfew after health officials declared a COVID-19 outbreak in the community last week.

Mayor Robert St. Pierre told meadowlakeNOW a curfew was put in place effective April 17.

“We have a curfew in place from 10 p.m. until 7 a.m and it started last Friday,” he said. “We put the measures in place and people are abiding by it. There’s been no resistance which is awesome.”

As of right now, positive case numbers in La Loche and the Clearwater River Dene Nation remain steady at six with no new cases reported.

In a press conference, Saskatchewan’s Chief Medical Health Officer Dr. Saqib Shahab said a full technical briefing on the La Loche community will happen through the Saskatchewan Health Authority on April 21.

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“Remote, isolated communities are especially conscious of preventing as much as they can [in terms of] importation into their settings and, they also feel that if they have cases they may have some specific challenges in terms of managing that. However, we have seen the SHA has really worked very closely with northern communities to ensure testing is available as much as possible in the North and our testing numbers in the North are going up,” Shahab said.

The chief medical officer went on to say access to high levels of care is available if required. In many remote communities, when there was a case, people have successfully self-isolated at home and recovered within two weeks.

“There’s a lot of positive signs for Saskatchewan. For the vast majority, isolating at home away from other household members leads to full recovery in two weeks,” Shahab said. “There are specific considerations and concerns in the North that the SHA and other partners are working very closely with them to support additional measures community leaders may think are necessary.”

A travel ban has been put in place effective Friday for those travelling from northern Alberta. Those returning from Fort McMurray have been asked to self-isolate for 14 days.

Chief Teddy Clark of Clearwater River Dene Nation said checkpoints have been put in place on Highway 155 going into La Loche and are manned 24 hours per day.

“The checkpoint coincides with the curfew. The checkpoint shuts down at 10 p.m. meaning no one goes in or out until 7 a.m. and that’s local people going out,” Clark said. “Non-residents are not allowed in the community unless they are deemed essential services.”

Out of the 31 tests conducted late last week, some of the returned tests came back negative.

If you have symptoms of COVID-19, the province urges you to self-isolate immediately and contact your family physician or call HealthLine 811.

For more information on self-isolation, social distancing and other public health measures you can take, go to saskatchewan.ca/COVID19

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Editor’s note: this article was amended to make clear some of the test results from last week came back negative.

nicole.reis@jpbg.ca

Twitter: @nicolereis7722