Northern village of Beauval adapting to COVID-19 outbreak

People in Beauval are doing their best to keep spirits high after the Saskatchewan Health Authority declared a COVID-19 outbreak in the northern village on Friday.

Mayor Nick Daigneault said the stress of it all is starting to get to the 750 people that call Beauval home.

“Relatively, we’re doing OK,” Daigneault said. “We’re adapting. There’s still a bit of fear in the community.

“With the active cases now (people) are wondering, ‘What more can we do?’”

A release from the SHA on Friday wouldn’t elaborate on how many cases were in the community, but an earlier release announced a worker at the Beauval General Store tested positive on Tuesday.

According to Daigneault, seven people tested positive while another 25 people tested negative during a round of testing at the store.

Since the general store – a hub for groceries and essential items in the area – is located at the highway junction six kilometres south of the village, there’s no way for Daigneault to know if those people reside in Beauval or any of the surrounding communities.

Daigneault encourages anyone in the area who has been notified by the SHA of a positive test to reach out to him for any needs so no one feels even more isolated.

Guidelines and public health orders like distancing from one another or limiting interactions weren’t followed too closely until positive cases were reported closer to Beauval, according to Daigneault.

“A few weeks ago people weren’t taking it as seriously as it needed to be taken,” he said. “With the active cases increasing in other communities like La Loche, I think a lot more northerners are paying attention to this.”

“In one regard, I’m happy that they’re taking COVID-19 a lot more seriously than they did a couple days ago, but that puts a bit of stress on us now to make sure we’re following out emergency planning that we’ve had to put into place.”

Businesses in the village are closed and checkpoints to keep unnecessary outside visitors away have been deployed.

Even the Beauval Northern Store has closed its doors and moved to online or phone orders ahead of time only. The other convenience store in the village is operating by “counter service,” meaning customers can only get items by request and are not allowed to browse shelves or move throughout the store.

The positive test revealed on Tuesday led to the closure of the general store, which also created some issues in the area as some people travelled from hundreds of kilometres away to purchase fuel and groceries.

“There was a bit of a panic as to those who were used to (fueling) up there,” Daigneault said. “We just kind of had to adapt ourselves, too.”

Anyone needing supplies that were caught off guard by the general store’s closure were escorted by personnel at the checkpoints.

“We did definitely see a surge of customers at our two little confectioneries in the community. We weren’t prepared for it, that’s for sure. They come in and they wiped out all of our staple products like bread, milk and eggs.”

The dwindling grocery supply in town led Beauval to closely monitor the village’s lone fuel tank so emergency vehicles won’t run out.

That in turn puts the pressure on the general store – a building that includes a grocery store, a convenience store and a gas station – to reopen before there are serious shortages.

Inspection and cleaning are being done in conjunction with public health officials to return to business as soon and safely as possibly. Daigneault said the gas station and convenience side of the store will reopen first, hopefully sometime on Monday.

The SHA is asking anyone who travelled through Beauval from April 12 to April 27 to self-monitor for symptoms of COVID-19.

“We’ve amped up our precautions here just to keep people at ease, and for the most part, they’re all liking the precautions so that they know we’re doing our part to keep the community safe,” Daigneault said.