'We're driving blind': lack of COVID-19 case reporting leading to issues according to advocate groups

Saskatchewan is the only province in the country not providing COVID-19 data to the Public Health Agency of Canada.

Dr. Adam Ogieglo decided the people of Saskatchewan deserved better than a greyed out rectangle labelled “N/A” representing their province and started doing the math and photo-shopping the number onto the map himself.

“The message, intended or not, seems to be that they would rather you just move on with life and not make those risk assessments,” said Ogieglo, who is a family physician in Saskatoon.

“They’ve completely hamstrung us by not giving us the data in a timely fashion and a transparent fashion to do those risk assessments.”

Ogieglo’s map shared to his Facebook group “SK COVID-19 Perspectives” shows Saskatchewan leading the country in deaths per capita.

From Feb. 6-12, 42 deaths were reported in the province, 29 of those were in the 80-years-old and over category.

He said we experienced our Omicron wave later than other provinces, putting us right in the thick of it.

“I think Omicron is just everywhere and I mean, we see it in our clinic, we see it in long-term care facilities,” said Ogieglo. “With the virus being everywhere you’re just naturally going to see that spillover effect happening in these places.”

Twenty-two confirmed new COVID-19 outbreaks in long-term care and care home settings were reported from Feb. 6-12.

The Saskatchewan Seniors Mechanism said the biggest problem is the lack of current data, with data a week or two old no longer relevant.

“When we think about making decisions we don’t have data anymore and so it’s like we’re driving blind,” said Linda Anderson, communications staff at Saskatchewan Seniors Mechanism.

“We have to rely on the institutions themselves to be keeping track of what’s happening, to talk with residents’ families and friends about what decisions will be best carried out in their facility.”

The Canadian Association of Retired Persons (CARP) also said communication is the most important thing in care homes right now.

“It’s one thing to know that you might not be able to see your family or friends for a week or so, it’s another thing to be left high and dry with no idea if this is going to be another six months of being kept away from family,” said Bill VanGorder, chief operating officer at CARP.

VanGorder said we have a responsibility to keep our loved ones safe, regardless of provincial mandates.

“When we have many people who are high risk, then we have to have more careful control of how they’re looked after than in other situations,” said VanGorder. “Saskatchewan should be looking at individuals and how we look after each them according to their needs.”

Both organizations said a total lockdown of residents from people on the outside is not the answer, as isolation can be even more dangerous than the virus.

With understaffing issues at long-term care homes, this can cause issues in quality of care. VanGorder said many family members going in provide care of their own.

Anderson said keeping these residents safe comes down to a balance of masking and vaccinations with facilities setting their own set of rules to keep residents safe.

The mask mandate in the province is set to lift at the end of the month, but Ogieglo thinks these restrictions should stay in place for the time being.

“We all want the restrictions gone, we all want to be back to normal, but we want to do that in the safest way possible,” he said, adding hospitalizations are currently at an all time high.

Ogieglo encourages people to continue to wear a mask in public places even after the mandate is lifted, saying it’s important to know where we are at in terms of the pandemic, adding right now we are not in a good place.

“When people are doing their own risk assessments I would like for them to take into consideration that the virus is at nearly record high levels through multiple areas of the province,” said Ogieglo.