There’s growing concerns in northwest Saskatchewan communities after an outbreak of COVID-19 around the La Loche area on Tuesday.
The village now has nine confirmed cases, with three more on the nearby Clearwater River Dene Nation, and four in Patuanak according to The 155 Collective, a community organization currently helping 24 Indigenous communities amid the pandemic.
Most of those cases stem from workers returning home from the Alberta oilsands, it said. There have been 362 cases in total in the province since March 11, as of Wednesday afternoon. “We still have workers coming back … and it’s not only La Loche they’re returning to,” said Rick Laliberte, incident commander with the organization. “Those communities are briefing each other