The national chief of the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) says an outbreak of COVID-19 in Saskatchewan’s far north is alarming.
Perry Bellegarde noted Tuesday that there’s been a steady rise in cases mainly from in and around the Dene community of La Loche, 600 kilometres northwest of Saskatoon.
He said the English River First Nation’s territory is also in the area and it, too, has reported cases of COVID-19. Bellegarde said he’s hearing that local leadership needs to be more involved in decision-making and that some northerners haven’t been allowed to travel south to buy food. “That was a very big issue for a lot of them, because they don’t have access to grocery stores,” he said.