Welcome to Regina…home of the W-H-L’s East Division hub…or “Dubble” as I prefer to refer to it! Great stuff!!
Also, welcome to Regina…Saskatchewan’s epi-centre for the B1.1.1.7 (UK) variant of concern! Uh, not so good stuff!
Before you stop reading or yell, out loud or silently to yourself, that I should, “stay in my lane,” I’ll have you know the COVID-19 pandemic was MY LANE for most of the last 12 months. Outside of holiday time that I was mandated to take by my employer, and with local sports being shut down for the most part, I was a news reader and attempted to rewrite news releases…including the daily update from the Province of Saskatchewan’s Ministry of Health…for CJWW and the Saskatoon Media Group. Thank you to my bosses for keeping me employed for the last 12 months…I know of many others who weren’t as fortunate!
But, you know what?! I’m still checking out the daily updates…not to write for work, but to read for my own interest and knowledge…and I’m a little concerned that I am hanging my shingle where I am right now!
Sunday’s update showed that 141 of 156 confirmed cases of variant of concern, or V-O-C, are here in Regina. That’s just under 90%! Add in the presumptive cases, where Regina has 527 of the 625 total presumptive V-O-C cases in the province and that’s about 83% more in this city alone!
Yikes! What am I doing here!
Now, there are people who would say that I am feeding into the fear and paranoia created by governments and health officials…citing that of the almost 800 either confirmed or presumptive cases of V-O-C in Saskatchewan, that’s from a total population of 1,177,884, or about six-one thousandth of one per cent! Those people, also, don’t trust anything that any government says about the COVID-19 and V-O-C daily numbers.
The problem is, I don’t know of any independent sources of information that have different statistics that can be accurately referred to that could debunk this pandemic as being a ruse! As a result, I will continue to follow the basic hygiene recommendations for frequent hand washing, maintain two metres of physical distancing from people outside my household and I’m wearing two masks at a time when I go out into public. The only time I’m not wearing my double mask is when I’m in the broadcast booth at the Brandt Centre, when I’m in my Obasa Six-Three Suite and when I’m eating alone in a restaurant.
Oh, I know protective measures from the government with regards to avoiding contracting a V-O-C here in Regina include ordering take-out or curbside pick-up, but I need to be out and about a little bit! I’m trusting in people, also, following the basic public health guidelines when I’m having a dinner…the only meal of the day that I don’t take in my suite.
Maybe I shouldn’t trust people that way…like the nay-sayers who don’t believe in the COVID-19 pandemic, eh?!
Otherwise, I can’t avoid travel to and from Regina…according to my employer, the Saskatoon Media Group, my time here isn’t unnecessary. For that, I’m thrilled. The return of the W-H-L’s East Division…even if it is in the V-O-C capital of Saskatchewan…has been a welcome return to some sense of normalcy for me!
Heck, I now have two “lanes” that I’ve become somewhat proficient in! You can teach an old dog new tricks!!
