COVID cases rise after 100-plus people attend party in the southwest

Cases of COVID-19 have been rising in southwest Saskatchewan after a “super-spreader” party with more than 100 attendees near Maple Creek.

According to the mayor of Maple Creek, Michelle McKenzie, at least 40 cases of COVID-19 involving the B.1.1.7 variant — also known as the U.K. variant — have been traced to the outdoor party over the Easter weekend.

The Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) raised the alarm on April 14 urging people in the southwest to obey all current public health orders and measures to stop the cases from increasing in the region.

McKenzie says the party near the community has caused a lot of issues.

“It’s a good wake-up call for everybody that we can’t let our guard down. We need to follow the safe practices and hopefully get over this hump,” McKenzie said.

“It’s an unfortunate event that this mass gathering had to take place and one of the things that we’ve got to take from this is that the choices we make have consequences. Now we’re seeing how far these consequences can reach and what they can do to other people.”

McKenzie said a woman from Warman, some 420 kilometres away, had called her to let her know that a case in that community had been traced to the party.

“She was very distraught and upset. She just let me know how far cases from this party had spread,” McKenzie said. “From what I know, there were individual people coming from different places within the region to this party that was held near Maple Creek.”

The SHA didn’t respond to requests for more information by the time of publication.