‘We let our guard down:’ Star City Colony on lockdown after spike in COVID-19 cases

The minister of the Star City Colony admits COVID-19 moved through the colony fast without most people even knowing they had it.

The province singled out the colony during Wednesday’s daily briefing after 44 positive COVID-19 cases were confirmed in the community.

Star City Colony Minister David Tschetter said a few members of the colony were asked to get tested after showing symptoms. Once those tests resulted in a positive case, the entire colony was tested and is now under a voluntary lockdown to stop further spread.

“Saskatchewan started opening stage one, and as with all humans you become complacent and I guess we let our guard down,” he said. “Which in hindsight (the cases) wouldn’t have happened if we would have stayed on guard all the time.”

He figures the novel coronavirus entered the colony from typical community spread as members were freely moving, attending funerals and visiting friends outside the colony.

“I think some people had it and didn’t even know about it,” Tschetter said. “I tested positive myself and didn’t realize I had it. I thought it was just the common flu.”

Communal gatherings like church services have been put on pause until the community’s 14-day isolation period is over, food is being offered by takeout only in the kitchens, masks are being worn and members are distancing when possible.

Tschetter said he started showing symptoms three weeks ago, but he will continue to isolate until the rest of the colony’s two-week period is over.

While other colonies in the province are claiming stigma and discrimination towards them, Star City Colony, which is located roughly 30 kilometres from Melfort, is thanking its nearest city for reaching out and offering any help that is necessary.

That’s what Praire North Co-op General Manager Terry Tremblay did when he heard about Wednesday’s spike in cases.

Tremblay said the nearby colony provides plenty of produce in the area and business to Prairie North’s grocery store, gas station and lumber yard, so reaching out to try and help was the obvious choice.

“Anything they need, we’d be willing to deliver,” he said. “They’re pretty self-sufficient, but if there was a need they had, we just said ‘let us know.’ We see them as a partner of ours.”

Tremblay said the only discussions in the area have been about support and not of discrimination. He feels even with the nearby cases that people in Melfort are generally more comfortable than they were at the outset of the pandemic.

“I think we’re going to get through this without a big impact on our community – that’s what we’re hoping for,” he said. “We didn’t really change a lot in the last week since hearing this.”

“The scrutiny that this news release has brought us is not really appealing,” Tschetter said of the attention focused on the normally quiet area.

“The whole Hutterite society gets painted with the same brush, and it’s driving some of the colonies to block when they’re offered services from the health (authority) because they don’t want that. It’s not in our lifestyle, it’s not in our culture.”

Tschetter said the colony has been in constant communication with health officials and members are fully cooperating with any and all requests.

Although he has the same name as the chairperson of the Hutterian Safety Council, Tschetter is not the same person.

Editor’s note: Tschetter provided 650 CKOM with a clarification saying his symptoms started appearing three weeks ago. An earlier version of this story stated Tschetter tested positive for COVID-19 at that time.