Facing COVID-19 outbreak, Saugeen First Nation in Ontario asks for help to reverse 'panic'

A band councillor in a small Indigenous community on the shores of Lake Huron says he needs outside medical staff to assist with a COVID-19 outbreak that has led to 97 cases, at a time when infection rates across Ontario are falling.

"This kind of creeped up on us and it put a lot of panic in our community members," Doran Ritchie a band councillor and health committee chair with Saugeen First Nation, said Tuesday. "Our job is to reverse that panic and assure them we're doing everything we can to get through this."

Saugeen First Nation is an Ojibway community located along the Saugeen River and Bruce Peninsula, about 30 kilometres west of Owen Sound. It declared a state of emergency on June 30 and remains under a stay-at-home order. 

Of the 97 cases reported since the outbreak began, 57 remain active and 40 people have recovered. There are four people in hospital, two of them intubated. Ritchie said there are no known deaths linked to the outbreak. 

He said the community has enacted its pandemic plan and set up three isolation clinics. Donations are pouring in and volunteers have stepped up to help. 

However, Ritchie said the main issue he faces is a lack of qualified, fully vaccinated medical staff to run the community's isolation clinics. 

"That's the big challenge right now," he said. "As of now, we have three clinics ready to go, but we don't have enough staff to operate them. We can't just pull people off the street to run our clinics."

Grey Bruce Health Unit has provided vaccination clinics and other help. Starting Wednesday, door-to-door vaccinations will begin.

Source of outbreak 'hard to pinpoint'

Local leaders met with Canadian Armed Forces personnel about the possibility of them coming in to assist, but Ritchie said that won't happen for now. 

He said the source of the outbreak, which led to a surge in cases last week, is not known. The community's sandy beaches are popular with summer visitors, and Ritchie said traffic has picked up with the arrival of hot weather and as the province entered Stage 2 of the economic reopening plan on June 30.

"We are a very active tourist area," said Ritchie. "It's hard to pinpoint where this came from."

For the most part, people have been staying home and they've been responsible. But it has been causing a lot of stress and strain in our community.- Doran Ritchie, Saugeen First Nation

Most businesses are complying with the lockdown order, but Ritchie admitted not every business is keeping its doors closed. 

However, the community hasn't had a strong uptake in vaccinations, even though Ritchie said access to them "hasn't been an issue." 

He said of the 772 community members who are eligible to receive a shot against COVID-19, about half of them have received at least one dose. 

He said for now, the focus is on limiting transmission, boosting vaccination rates and getting outside medical staff into the community to help before the outbreak gets worse. 

"For the most part, people have been staying home and they've been responsible. But it has been causing a lot of stress and strain in our community."