Murray Mandryk: Better disclosure of COVID-19 cases needed

BY MURRAY MANDRYK

To describe rural Saskatchewan as a remote location is often meant _ or at least taken _ as a slight.

But Chief Medical Health Officer Saqib Shahab meant the remark in a complimentary way recently, suggesting distance and isolation have been keys in this province to containing outbreaks of COVID-19.

Last month’s COVID-19 outbreak at two Hutterite colonies near Maple Creek serves as a stark reminder of what the Shahab, the Saskatchewan Party government and the Saskatchewan Health Authority have been saying all along:

Outbreaks can and will happen anywhere at anytime.

But doesn’t that mean we need better and more immediate detailed information on outbreaks when they do happen?

This is one thing government should be doing a lot better four months into this pandemic.

“We have seen local outbreaks that can continue to spread … if we let our guard down,” Premier Scott Moe said in a press conference last Tuesday _ a day after the public learned of 54 new cases in just two days that was the largest two-day case numbers in two months.

“Again, the virus can spread at any place at any time. We all have to do our part.”

Shahab added that while 40 or 50 cases sounds like a large number, it’s not that surprising in a communal living setting like a Hutterite colony.

However, the CMO was confident that because of contact tracing and good practices, such spreads can be contained to within specific communities. And because the communities in Saskatchewan are far party, the spread can be that much more easily confined.

But if this is what Saskatchewan officials have discovered four months into this fight, it’s more than a little curious they haven’t been providing more immediate and detailed information on cases when they do occur.

New cases had been reported on a broad regional basis that did not include specific rural communities until last week when the government took the unprecedented measure of mentioning specific rural municipalities with cases — Maple Creek , Auvergne, Biggar, Carmichael, Eagle Creek, Harris, Lac Pelletier, Newcombe, Perdue, Kellross and Prairiedale.

There was also some additional detail we don’t normally get. Shabab said not all cases were related to communal transfer from the colonies.

Health Minister Jim Reiter added health officials and the SHA were working closely with the Hutterian Safety Council.

But, mostly, what the government told us was what we heard before or already know _ that this is "just a reminder for everyone to just be that much more alert” and that “we all need to be aware of our own symptoms”.

We need more detail _ and certainly more consistent reporting of outbreaks that include specifically where they are happening.

Why they are reluctant to do so specifically in rural communities is a bit puzzling.

The government has had few qualms about reporting COVID-19 cases of those working in city bars or hardware stores that may have come into contact with the public.

One gets why governments might not want to stigmatize small communities or inadvertently breach personal health privacy.

But shouldn’t public health take priority over these other considerations?

Evidently it does, because this is now what the government is doing by announcing a case in a small RMs like Harris with just 193 people.

We simply need more consistency, forthright and immediate disclosure of outbreaks _ regardless of where they occur.

Moe acknowledged last week that not immediately reporting 54 cases on the weekend “did create some concern” after being criticized for not taking three days to release the numbers by NDP leader Ryan Meili.

Moe said his government would back to seven-day a week reporting of daily case numbers.

This is helpful.

If outbreaks can happen anywhere, anytime, we need to immediately know where they are happening.