Looking back: Five years after COVID-19 arrived in Saskatchewan

WATCH: Nazeem Muhajarine, an epidemiologist at the University of Saskatchewan, joins Morgan Campbell to chat about how the province has changed since COVID-19.

Five years after COVID-19 became a reality in Saskatchewan, much has changed in the province, with the impacts of the pandemic sure to be on the minds of many.

In December of 2019, headlines began to point to cases of a pneumonia-like illness in the city of Wuhan, China, which seemed to be connected to a seafood wholesale market.

The illness was identified as a novel coronavirus by public health officials in China in early January and soon spread to different countries, with Canada’s first case confirmed on Jan. 27.

Canada’s first death from the virus was recorded on March 8.

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The World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic on March 11, with Canada facing over 100 cases at the time.

Nazeem Muhajarine, an epidemiologist at the University of Saskatchewan, remembers that day well – referring to it as a “call to action.”

“I felt that I was called to step up and put my training and my knowledge into work and how that looked for me, and what that meant for me, was to do studies and to read widely and from many different sources … in order to understand this quickly developing and quickly moving pandemic,” he told CTV News.

“I felt like it was a go time, every day, all day, mostly. And I’m glad that I’m not doing it now.”

Detected in Sask.

March 12, 2020, was the day those in Saskatchewan learned the virus spreading around the world had arrived at their doorstep.

On March 18, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe declared a state of emergency, and by the end of the month, in-person classes had been suspended in schools and post-secondary institutions.

Two seniors in the province became the virus’s first two victims in the province during that period.

Saskatchewan was set to host the Junos and the Grey Cup in 2020, but both events were cancelled in the wake of the pandemic.

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As the province tried to get their bearings and navigate the virus, Muhajarine said he thought Saskatchewan responded well in the early weeks and months.

“I think Saskatchewan’s response was actually very good to the extent that we did not experience huge escalating outbreaks,” he said.

“In fact, I remember the chief medical health officer referring to Saskatchewan’s experience of COVID-19 in that first five to six months as a baby wave, as compared to what was experienced by B.C., Quebec and many parts of the world.”

Shift in the day-to-day

From there, things progressed at lightning speed and a new reality began to take shape.

Orders were given to wear a mask, maintain social distancing and work from home if possible. More and more events were cancelled, and even family gatherings were under the microscope.

“A lot of people [were] sort of having a first experience, probably in their lifetime, to have to stay home, shelter at home, not being able to talk to people without a mask and not in close quarters, are not able to work, go to work, and children are not able to go to school. I mean … after that, the novelty wore off, then the reality settled in,” Muhajarine said.

“We were experiencing the big waves,” he added. “By 2021 fall into 2022, Saskatchewan wasn’t a good place to be really. In relation to the pandemic, we had some of the worst outcomes, hospitalizations, per capita deaths in late 2021 and into 2022.”

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COVID-19 spread quickly through long-term care homes, with an outbreak in Regina’s Extendicare Parkside seeing more than 200 residents and staff infected. Of those, 41 people died from the virus.

Effects felt everywhere, by everyone

While the WHO ended the public health emergency for COVID-19 in 2023, Muhajarine said the pandemic has led to several long-term effects, noting not everyone was affected the same way.

“There were not spikes of deaths and hospitalizations as much in youth and young adults. But it was a matter or outcome of severe mental health. I mean, you really sort of having to cope with not being able to go to school, not being able to just live a normal child’s life, a youth’s life,” he said.

“I think even after five years, I would say that children and young adults are still having lingering effects.”

Over the past five years, people started to find different ways to cope with the new normal, while trying to maintain a sense of hope and optimism.

Muhajarine also pointed to a lingering social aspect, with the pandemic amplifying the drug crisis, the housing crisis, food insecurity, and poor mental health.

“All of these sort of social health outcomes, I think they were there before the pandemic, but certainly the pandemic really exacerbated them, and it hadn’t gone away. Again, five years on, housing crisis, food insecurity hasn’t dissipated,” he said.

While upending social norms, the years long pandemic also strained healthcare systems right across the globe – with Saskatchewan being no exception.

“The healthcare system in general, but particularly medical care system, our doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, all those people who are working the front lines, they are strained, they continue to be under tremendous duress,” Muhajarine said.

“We have a human resource issue with our medical care provider capacity and … we have not really begun to address this.”

Another causality of the pandemic was the public trust in government and institutions – escalated by misinformation and disinformation. It’s one more thing that must be rebuilt, according to Muhajarine.

“What is happening today has a direct line to sort of what happened during COVID in relation to public trust in government, in public institutions like public health authorities, medical care providers, even scientists … and the social networks, social media, traditional media, and that’s a huge trust erosion,” he said.

“We need to bring back that trust, and we need to actually build back that trust and this is [an] ongoing project.”

Five years after the virus made its way to Saskatchewan, COVID-19 is now an established virus managed through regular measures.

However, the long-term impacts of the pandemic live on, with many people still trying to return to a sense of normalcy.

-With files from Morgan Campbell