What if, after saying things were looking so good and there was a light at the end of the tunnel, there was a major outbreak in the province in the ensuing seven days? Something that set us all back to square one?
Well, at least that didn't happen.
What appears to actually have happened is some folks working up in the oil fields in northern Alberta had a chance to see their families in La Loche after so much time away, and took advantage of it with a quick trip home.
But there's a COVID-19 outbreak surging through worker camps near Fort McMurray. And when people came home from Alberta, they brought the disease with them.
That led to an outbreak of three cases in La Loche as of Saturday, with three more presumptive for the remainder of the province, including the northern town.
Three cases isn't a lot, especially compared to what everyone else is going through. But for Saskatchewan, that's an outbreak. And six cases in a single day is an actual substantial jump over the one or two we've seen over the past week.
So there it is.
Literal proof that even in a situation where we're winning, where it all looks so positive, all it takes is humans trying to be human even for single trip home from out-of-province to cause trouble.
The numbers reported on Sunday were still good, with only two new cases and no recoveries.
But that could change in the ensuing days as the new cases up north spread, or the cases in extended care and assisted-living homes become worse.
These woods? They're thick, they're gnarly and they like to grab and take hold of anyone who gets into them.
We're still a long way from escaping, even if there's a bit of a path.
Now, for the good news for us and really bad news for down south.
Remember last week and the 'we'll be number one with a bullet' claim for the comparison to how we're faring against states in the U.S.?
Turns out that, sadly, that's exactly what's happened.
As of Sunday, Hawaii has the fewest cases per million in the United States at 404. Saskatchewan, at 315 would have the fewest cases of any state in the U.S. for the first time since we started tracking this metric.
In only a week, Wyoming – one of the states closest to our province in data last week – saw a surge of 400 new cases per million, but fortunately remains right with Saskatchewan with only three deaths per million.
It's all a sign that because we paid attention and listened here in our province, we've been able to mitigate the damage.
Leadership can be one of the most important factors in a time like this, and Saskatchewan is doing so well in part because of the timely and factual information Premier Scott Moe and Dr. Saqib Shahab, Saskatchewan’s chief medical health officer, have brought to the public.
We've had daily updates and press conferences since this took hold, and the political spin has been minimal. Facts and figures, measures to help make those figures as positive as possible, and straight-up truthful information has helped make the fight in Saskatchewan immeasurably easier.
And NDP leader Ryan Meili even got in the act a couple of weeks ago with a mask-making tutorial, drawing on his experience as a physician with practical and informative advice.
Contrast and compare to other jurisdictions, where leaders continually fight both at a regional and national level on a daily basis, leading to confusion and even protests due to conflicting messages not providing accurate information.
We're doing well in our province, again, because of who we are in our province. We care for each other and our communities, and when the time came to work together to beat back the biggest scourge in a generation, we listened and took advice and continue to do so.
That's how you win in a pandemic.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the position of this publication.
