First doses given in the last 30 days for La Ronge and Air Ronge residents is up almost 10 per cent. (Derek Cornet/larongeNOW Staff)

By Derek Cornet

public health

COVID-19 cases up in tri-communities, more residents accepting vaccine

Oct 15, 2021 | 5:00 PM

The number of active COVID-19 cases in the tri-communities continues to grow.

As of Oct. 14, there were 67 active cases with 40 being on-reserve, and 27 in Air Ronge and La Ronge combined. One month ago as of today, there were 35 active cases in the tri-communities.

La Ronge Mayor Colin Ratushniak said the number of cases could continue to rise due to gatherings held during the Thanksgiving long weekend.

“It’s troubling to see and we’re likely to see that number jump here too,” he explained. “Even from last year, if you look at the historical data around Thanksgiving, we tend to see those numbers rise again.”

Ratuskniak believes the provincial government could have done more to discourage people from gathering for Thanksgiving. He noted the health care system in Saskatchewan is on the brink of collapse and it was frustrating to see the province not doing more to prevent that during the holiday.

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“A lot of residents are still misinformed about the vaccine and, even when we see the daily case numbers coming out through the province as well, the largest portion of people who are in the intensive care unit are unvaccinated,” Ratushniak said. “There probably needs to be some more educational campaigns going out about the hesitancy about some of the ones who are not getting vaccinated. Ultimately, it’s down to the person to go and get it done.”

With the provincial government requiring proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test to access certain business and services as of Oct. 1, more tri-community residents have decided to become vaccinated. For instance, on Sept. 15, 70.3 per cent of residents in Air Ronge and La Ronge had one shot and 57.7 per cent had two.

As of Oct. 14, 79.6 per cent of those residents had the first dose and 65.1 per cent had two.

“We have a lot of people in the community who are doing really good work to make sure that [vaccinations] are advertised and make that available for each resident [to] look after their own health,” Ratushniak said.

The population of the tri-communities is an estimated 6,416 residents.

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derek.cornet@pattisonmedia.com

Twitter: @saskjourno