Via CBC News: Hutterite colonies, health authorities could have acted sooner to prevent COVID-19: epidemiologist. Excerpt:
Manitoba could have acted quicker to prevent COVID-19 from spreading in Hutterite colonies, especially given the "intense threat" the virus has demonstrated to Hutterites west of the province, an epidemiologist says.
The latest numbers show nearly 600 confirmed cases on Saskatchewan Hutterite colonies, which account for one-third of the provincial total and an infection rate of roughly 10 per cent of the Hutterite population there.
"Had there been more willingness, openness, to identify the first few cases, and then had there been a very quick, almost instantaneous response to that case … the case number could have been fewer than we ended up having," said Saskatchewan-based epidemiologist Nazeem Muhajarine, who studies community health.
If Manitoba wants to avoid something similar, aggressive testing needs to happen from the outset, local doctors familiar with communities need to be used and culturally-sensitive relationships need to be built before the crisis, he said.
Manitoba's chief public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin said on Monday that one-third of all active cases in the province are connected to tight-knit communities, which includes Hutterite colonies.
Lessons learned out west
While health officials in Saskatchewan have been able to track the cases, their ability was sometimes hampered by cultural differences, including language barriers, as not all Hutterites speak English.
"People were giving information sheets in English. That might not actually have gone over very well," he said.
The province also had time to build better relationships before the pandemic hit the colonies, he said.
"It helps a great deal if you are building on a cultural understanding and a relationship between non-Hutterites and Hutterite communities," he said.
"A pandemic situation is not a good time to be building that relationship."
