Sask. working to bring Hutterite COVID-19 case rates down

The provincial government and the Saskatchewan Health Authority continue to have a focus on COVID-19 cases on Hutterite colonies, and the premier says it’s because colony infection rates are so high.

In the new case totals, the news release still makes mention of how many new cases are from “communal living settings,” often referring to the communal living situations present on colonies – situations that can make it easier for the virus to spread in those communities.

On Wednesday at the COVID-19 update, Premier Scott Moe pointed out the severity of the outbreak. As of Wednesday, he said 244 of the 322 active cases in the province were in Hutterite communities, at 76 per cent. The active cases did decrease by Friday to 293.

With about 6,000 Hutterites across the province, Moe said they’re running above a 5 per cent infection rate in the colonies.

“This is as high of an infection rate of anything I’m aware of in North America, and that is why we’re taking this very seriously,” Moe said.

The infection rate for the province as a whole is about a tenth of one per cent – a number Moe said is the goal they’re heading for.

He said they’re talking about infections in colonies not to stigmatize anyone, but to make sure everyone is aware of where these outbreaks are and when.

As of Wednesday, the province’s Chief Medical Health Officer Dr. Saqib Shahab said the effective reproductive number — the number of new cases a single infection produces — in southern Saskatchewan is at 3.19. Previously Shahab has said a number below one is what they’re looking for because it means the curve is flat.

Shahab called 3.19 concerningly high.

“But we understand the transmission risk; we understand that the transmission is primarily happening within communal living settings. Obviously, a reproductive number even half of that but without understanding transmission settings would be of greater concern,” said Shahab.

The surge in cases in southern Saskatchewan is pulling up the province’s reproductive number as a whole, to 2.94.

Looking at this, Shahab said we can get comfort and confidence from the far north, which saw an outbreak and a higher reproductive number, but now it’s down to 0.84.

“While the reproductive number does spike up, as long as we understand the context of transmission and can act rapidly, it does respond to actions that all of us take and it can go in the opposite direction,” said Shahab.

Moe said the province and SHA are engaging in outreach to all 80 Hutterite colonies in the province, providing testing where it’s wanted or needed and also make sure that the public health orders are very clear and that they apply to everyone in the province.

“We are there to work with our communities, we are there to support our communities in exactly the same way that the Saskatchewan Health Authority has reached out and supported any other community that has an outbreak,” said Moe.

The outreach will be done by the SHA, and led by the province’s Rural and Remote Health Minister Warren Kaeding.