Steinbach late to recognize COVID-19 threat, some residents say, as case count surges faster than Winnipeg's

In a city that has one of the mostCOVID-19cases per capitain Canada, Brigitte Turner hopes the takeout orders her restaurant serves aren't contributing to therapid spread of the illness in Steinbach.

"We just pray that they're taking larger orders home to their familiesnot ordering for, you know, five or six people that are coming over to hang out," said Turner, who co-ownsBigg Smoak BBQ in the southern Manitoba city.

"We can hope, but I think our hope isdwindling with the numbers that are rising."

Thecity has becomea hot spot among Canadian cities for spread of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.

TheSteinbach health district which has a population of over 21,000 had 197 active cases as of Tuesday, according to provincial data(though theprovince has recently said its active case datamaybe inaccurate due toa backlog).

That would workout toa rate of more than 900 cases for every100,000people, higher than that of any other Manitoba city, including Winnipeg. (By way of comparison, Toronto has a current active case rate of about 135 per 100,000, according to that city's latest data.)

Nine people in the Steinbach district have died of COVID-19,including four after an outbreak at Bethesda Place personal care home in August.

The worrying numbers in Steinbachcome as the entire provincebegins a weeks-long partial shutdown Thursday, that will include a ban on socializing with people outside your own household.

COVID isn'tjust 'big-city stuff'

Turner feels the coronaviruscrept up on Steinbach, a city renowned for itsstrong sense of community, volunteerism and adherence to the Christian faith.

"I think it's more of the small-town notion of, 'It'snot going to come here that's big-city stuff,'" Turner said.

"We have a lot of community involvement with a lot of gatherings to do with sports and family things, and I think a lot ofthat just didn't take a back seat."

More and more people are taking COVID-19 seriously, but a small minority isn't, she said. Some people don't believe there's anything to worry about.

"They're going to comply because they have to, but they don't believe in it," she said.

"At this point, it's a guessing game why people don't want to believe it. The numbers are right there, the deaths are there, the infection rate is going up."

She's shooed away a few customers who refused to wear a face covering. Sheheard a patron try to explain toa friendthat a death rate ofone to two per cent from an illness is actually devastating.

She's watched asyoung womenlaughedasa big-box store employeeurged them to wear a mask.

"We all need to take the politics out of what the government is asking us to do and just do itfor ourselves" and for our community, she said.

Over the past week, adaily average of 31.2 out of every 100,000 residents of the Southern Health region (which includes Steinbach) were diagnosed with COVID-19. No other health region in Canada, aside from Winnipeg, comes close.

Still, some are skepticalof the virus's existence, or the threat it causes.Aneighbouring political leader, Rural Municipality of La Broquerie ReeveLewis Weiss, referred to a"plandemic" in a Winnipeg Free Press interview, implying the pandemic was orchestrated.

University student Alex Major wouldn't point fingers at a specific cause, but saidSteinbach residents took a while to notice the pandemic's looming threat.

It's not like in August, he said, when a fewrestaurants voluntarily shuttheir doors for a day or two,after a few reported cases of COVID-19.

"It just took a while for us to catch up," he said.

One of those restaurants was Golden Fried Burgers and Fries. On Monday, all city restaurants were barred from serving dine-in customers, asthe Southern Health regionmoved to the red, or critical, level on theprovince's pandemic response system the level Winnipeg has been at since Nov. 2, and which the remainder of the province moves to Thursday.

"For so long, it was the idea that Winnipeg was going through it worse," co-owner Isaac Loewen said.

"At some point in time, that led to complacency or frustration, and I think that led to the measures we're taking now."

Julie Ellis, the co-owner of Golden Fried Burgers and Loewen's partner,agrees.

"It's that idea of country spacea little bit more air to breathe. But now I think that people are taking [it] a lot more seriously."

'Fear being pumped into the people'

Evangeline Loewen, who owns a flower shop on Steinbach's main drag, isfollowing the public health orders as she must but she wonders whetherthetight lockdown restrictions go too far.

"Alot of people in this town will never, ever tell you their opinion; they're just quiet people," she said of hertraditionally Mennonite home.

"Ninety-nineper cent of the people that walk in the store are not happy with what's going on."

Instead, she advocates for measuresseparatingthe most vulnerable in society from everybody else. Another near-lockdown may have disastrous effects oneconomic, physical and social well-being, she worries.

"We're not happy with the whole fear being pumped into the people."

She said she caresdeeply for the elderly, the demographic most at risk of dying from the virus.She only questions whether the effects of a lockdown are more harmful than the virus.

She said she knows the widow of a COVID-19 victim whofeels the same way.

"One more thing I do think is that people should actually look to God," she said.

"That's part of why a lot of us aren't as afraid, either, is because we do know there's a God.He made us, He's the one that can actually heal us."

Steinbach's COVID-19 case counts surge

4 years ago

Duration 2:27

While Winnipeg's been getting most of the attention the number of COVID-19 cases in Steinbach, Man. might be even more concerning.