Head Tale

As rumours spread that at least two dozen people in the community have Covid, my hometown of Indian Head, Saskatchewan is facing a jump in Covid cases that has affected the nursing home, local businesses and now both the elementary and high schools which are going to be closed for two weeks.

WATCH: Over the past several days, the town of Indian Head, Sask., has reported a coronavirus outbreak at a local bakery and in its long-term care home — via @CPraillGlobal. READ MORE: https://t.co/0kVe2bvRel pic.twitter.com/irv6XD4lyZ

— Global Regina (@GlobalRegina) November 11, 2020

IHES Colt Parents/Guardians, Please see the attached newsletter regarding school closure. #staysafe #takecare #WeAreInThisTogether pic.twitter.com/LGcOjh12kB

— Indian Head Elementary School (@IHES_Colts) November 12, 2020

This completely avoidable situation frustrates me to no end for a number of reasons:

• even as case numbers were rising (Sask has had as many Covid cases in the past month as in the first seven months of the pandemic!), the government has refused to implement many serious measures to combat this growth up to and including a province-wide mask mandate.  Instead, they targeted the three largest cities in the province (as if people don’t travel?  Especially from rural areas to larger centres for everything from medical appointments to groceries to shopping?)
• The mask mandate is not even legally binding so it creates an uncomfortable grey area for employers, front-line staff and other customers in terms of what everyone can and can’t do around mask wearing.
• The refusal to make masks mandatory across the province also sends a signal to people that masks aren’t necessary or important which is already an issue given the tiny but vocal minority that comprises the anti-mask movement.
• My parents live in Indian Head as do other family members.  I also still have many friends and their families living there today (including at least one person I know who has serious health issues, currently lives in the nursing home and is rumoured to be one of the people with Covid.)
• …and there’s a very personal reason.  Although she passed away in 2004, my grandma spent the last years of her life in the Golden Prairie Nursing Home and I can’t help but think that if she were alive and living there now, she might not have had as many years at the end of her long life as she did given her age and also some health complications she suffered from.

  This is not the most flattering picture I have of her but it’s one of the last I have, taken only a couple months before she passed away.  I’m beyond thankful that she got pass peacefully with family nearby, not alone in her room, possibly with a gowned, gloved, masked and shielded nurse nearby as she died, labouring to breathe.