There continues to be a discrepancy on what information the health authorities that serve northern Saskatchewan are willing to release in terms of COVID-19 infections.
Both the Northern Inter-Tribal and Athabasca health authorities have released specific community locations of novel coronavirus infections.
However, the Saskatchewan Health Authority is only willing to split this part of the province into the broad regions of North and Far North in terms of infection locations.
Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation Chief Peter Beatty said the province has a responsibility to do better.
“I think it would be helpful to know, without giving out names and so on,” he said. “Because generally, people find out at the end of the day anyway. The province should really consider doing that. For the safety of everyone.”
The PBCN Chief added northern communities need this information to protect themselves against a potential outbreak.
“Knowing where the cases are, is I think helping us with our First Nations because then we know if someone has travelled to a place where there’s known cases then they’re being asked to self-isolate for 14 days upon coming back.”
The Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations has been calling for more transparency from the SHA since the pandemic began.
Beatty said there have been three COVID-19 infections in the northern community of Southend, two of which have recovered and one that is recovering.
Last week, the Athabasca Health Authority confirmed a new COVID-19 infection in the northern community of Stony Rapids on its Facebook page.
(PHOTO: Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation Chief Peter Beatty says the Saskatchewan Health Authority should be more transparent in terms of releasing locations of COVID-19 infections in northern Saskatchewan. File photo.)