‘Quite a shock:’ COVID-19 patient recounts experience at Christopher Lake snowmobile rally

Marg Clair never imagined helping out at a local snowmobile rally would lead to a close encounter with a global pandemic.

Clair, 70, was one of the volunteers working the Lakeland Snowmobile Club Wilderness Rally Supper in Christopher Lake in March.

The rally supper received plenty of recognition in the following weeks after the province confirmed 24 cases of COVID-19 could be traced back to the rally.

Clair handled money at the event and figures that’s how she came into contact with the coronavirus.

“That’s the only thing that I can figure out that would have been contaminated that I came in contact with,” Clair said.

Taking place on March 14, the supper attracted between 110 and 130 people. Four days later, the province banned gatherings larger than 50 people.

The week after the rally, Clair said she felt a bit of sinus congestion, a runny nose and a dry cough she would normally relate to a cold.

“I would have never even considered that this was what was being called COVID-19,” she said. “I assumed that meant you were supposed to have trouble breathing, or (have) a high temperature or be really sick, which I was not.”

A request from the Saskatchewan Health Authority was issued 11 days after the rally urging all attendees to be tested for COVID-19 after two people at the rally tested positive. If not for that call to get tested, Clair might never have known she was carrying the coronavirus.

“It was quite a shock for me,” Clair said of her diagnosis. “I just want people to know the person next you could quite easily be carrying COVID-19. They don’t have to be sick, they don’t have to look like they’ll sneeze all over you, or anything.”

Clair said most people from the rally she’s been in contact with since the event have been moved over to the recovered list of cases in the province after experiencing mild symptoms during their 14-day isolation.

Now that her bout with COVID-19 is behind her, she just wants people to accept the practical advice of professionals and take the pandemic seriously.

“I thought you had to look like you were sick, and you don’t,” she said. “After I tested, I realized this really is serious.”