Community and Public Health Responses to a COVID-19 Outbreak in North-west Saskatchewan: Challenges, Successes, and Lessons Learned

Abstract

In spring 2020, Indigenous communities in north-west Saskatchewan, Canada, experienced the first significant outbreak of COVID-19. Through the collective efforts of public health measures by local, provincial, federal, and community partners, COVID-19 impacts were mitigated, and the severity of the outbreak in north-west Saskatchewan was limited. This article outlines the epidemiological profile of COVID-19 in the area during this period, and the concomitant narrative of the public health control measures. The narrative connects specific culturally grounded and strength-based approaches that were taken by community leaders and public health officials to moderate the pandemic’s impacts and contain the outbreak. Among the lessons learned from these multi-jurisdictional efforts were the need to customize interventions to individual community characteristics and the benefits of continuous consultation and communication with community leadership. These findings suggest that long term monetary investment in the strengths, assets and capacity of communities can contribute towards sustainable solutions for existing structural inequities that have been amplified by the pandemic.  The collaboration that resulted from local, provincial, and federal partnerships informed other pandemic response measures for subsequent outbreaks that have affected the region during the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic.