Multijurisdictional outbreak of COVID-19 associated with a wake/funeral event in a northern Saskatchewan First Nations community

• Published in: Canada Communicable Disease Report
• Main Authors: Nnamdi Ndubuka, Sabyasachi Gupta, Rim Zayed, Brian Quinn, Moliehi Khaketla, Elaine Chan, Kristyn Franklin, Erin McGill
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English; French
• Published: Public Health Agency of Canada 2022
• Subjects: covid-19; sars-cov-2; outbreak; indigenous community; mass gathering; funeral; Infectious and parasitic diseases; RC109-216; Canada; First Nations
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.14745/ccdr.v48i04a04; https://doaj.org/article/40dec2ff5ae04b20a904af8c65be311a

Background: Sixty-eight laboratory-confirmed cases of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) (12 in Alberta [AB], 56 in Saskatchewan [SK]) were linked to a gathering at a hospital in Alberta on June 1–4, 2020, and a wake/funeral in a First Nations community in northern Saskatchewan on June 9–11, 2020. Objective: The objectives were to provide a comprehensive description of the epidemiology of the outbreak and describe the chains of transmission to inform the hypothesis that there were multiple introductions of COVID-19 at the wake/funeral. Methods: Case investigation and contact tracing was conducted by local public health in AB and SK. The Public Health Agency of Canada conducted a centralized case analysis. An epidemic curve and a Gantt chart for period of communicability were created to support or refute whether there had been multiple introductions of COVID-19 at the wake/funeral. Results: Illness onset dates ranged from May 31 to July 1, 2020. Ages ranged from 2 to 80 years (median age=43 years). Five cases were hospitalized; there were no deaths. The available case exposure information supports the hypothesis that there had been multiple introductions of COVID-19 at the wake/funeral. Public health authorities in AB and SK declared the outbreak over on July 20, 2020; based on two incubation periods (i.e. 28 days) following the illness onset of the last primary case. Conclusion: During multijurisdictional outbreaks, data sharing, coordination across health authorities and centralized analysis is essential to understanding the events that lead to the outbreak and possible hypotheses around chains of transmission.