In recent months, the Saskatchewan Health Authority has started the practice of sending out public service announcements when there is an “increased risk of COVID-19 exposures” at businesses and other sites.
They used to send one out for each notification, but in recent weeks, due to the rise in cases and the growing number of potential exposures, they now send out one advisory once a day, with all of the locations.
As of Monday morning, we’ve had five such advisories for businesses in Estevan and a few others in southeast Saskatchewan. It’s another testament to how well we’ve done in the southeast, and how low our caseload has been compared to other areas. There are communities much smaller than Estevan that have been subject to more advisories than the Energy City.
Anyways, one such advisory was issued Oct. 26 for the Days Inn Estevan. It proved to be incorrect; the business should have been the Hotel Estevan.
Now, let me be clear: I don’t think the SHA had an axe to grind for the Days Inn and its great staff and management. I’m guessing that representatives of the SHA, or the Ministry of Health, have probably stayed at the Days Inn, had a meeting there or dined at one of its restaurants, and had a great experience there, just like anyone else who has been there.
The Symons and Pierson families have been a huge part of our region for years; I'm sure they'll be part of it for years to come, and that'll be good news for all of us.
A guest who stayed at the Hotel Estevan from Oct. 10-17 later tested positive, and so SHA notified the public, which is what they’ve done hundreds of times in the past seven months. Whether we like it or not, it’s the right thing to do.
And I’m sure that SHA has been virtually flawless with these reports. Mistakes have probably been made in the last few months, but they’ve probably been few, or the SHA would have no choice but to rethink its public notification procedure.
They made a mistake this time.
The Days Inn deserves credit for not only issuing a statement in response to the SHA news release on Oct. 26, but doing it before SHA’s news release came out. It’s better to keep the public informed, and assuage their concerns, than to take the ostrich approach and stick their heads in the sand.
And once they found out they didn’t have a guest who later tested positive, they explained the situation on social media, without ripping into the health authority.
Unfortunately, the SHA didn’t admit to their mistake publicly until Sunday morning, more than 18 hours after the Days Inn revealed the incorrect information.
SHA should have immediately released a statement and an apology to the Days Inn on their social media feeds, rather than waiting until Sunday morning.
An entity with as many employees as SHA could have certainly issued a 100-150-word apology early on a Saturday evening.
I get that the SHA is under a lot of pressure and stress right now. The last seven months have taken a significant toll. I don't agree with some of their decisions in the past seven months, but I can't deny there are a lot of good people at the SHA right now who deserve and need a break.
That break likely won't be coming for months in many cases.
But the apology should have come a lot quicker. I would hope the SHA would realize how much weight these advisories carry.
When people see that someone who tested positive for COVID-19 was at a business, it gets their attention. For those who were at the business during the affected date(s) and time(s), they’re really paying attention. And for some, it sets off alarm bells.
We know there are those out there who are paranoid about COVID-19. When they see that a business had a customer or guest who tested positive, they seem to think it makes these businesses more susceptible to it happening again.
To sit back and say you wouldn’t go to a restaurant because they’ve had one customer test positive for COVID-19 during the past seven months is illogical. This mentality by some is part of the reason why businesses are taking such a hard financial hit during this pandemic.
Keep in mind that a restaurant or a grocery store or a retail business likely had no way of knowing that the person was COVID positive when that person was in the business. I'm sure the good people at Hotel Estevan had no clue that someone staying at their hotel at COVID.
I have been in most businesses in Estevan subject to one of these increased exposure news releases since those notifications were issued. And I wouldn’t hesitate to be in any of them again.
Our local businesses are very serious about enforcing the standards issued by SHA.
You go into the any business that has been listed by SHA thus far (and those that haven’t been) and you’ll likely see a business that exceeds the cleaning and sanitization standards issued by the provincial body. You have every reason to go there with confidence.
They care about us, our health, and the health of their employees.
You can feel comfortable about the standards at our local businesses. And you should be willing to go to these businesses, even if they’re the subject of an advisory.
