Beaver Lake Cree Nation barricading roads to help prevent COVID-19

Beaver Lake Cree Nation (BLCN) is bordering up there roads again in response to the first COVID-19 case in Lac La Biche.

The Director of Emergency and the pandemic team had previously put up borders at the beginning of April to protect their Nation from the virus, but as COVID-19 cases started to dwindle throughout the province, they lifted their borders just two weeks ago.

Now with a case of COVID-19 in a town just 13 minutes away, the borders have gone back up.

“We’ve decided to put up borders again mainly for the safety of our members, especially our elders and our immunocompromised,” said Dylan Landstrom, the Director of Emergency (DEM) for BLCN.

“It’s also a better way to monitor our traffic, and help us track where people have gone and if they could have been exposed to the virus.”

Three roads will be barricaded including the cut across road to Bonesville, the Victoria Trail, and the Mountain Trail, while the main road will continue to remain open until further notice.

Only BLCN members will be allowed to enter the reserve, and anyone wanting to travel outside of BLCN is urged to only leave for essential travel. Landstrom wants to remind the members of BLCN to continue to follow the COVID-19 health protocols.

“We just advise anyone to only leave the reserve for essentials, and to just keep practicing the public health orders that are out there,” said Landstrom.

“Continue to minimize contact with others, wear a mask where physical distancing isn’t possible, and frequently wash your hands and sanitize.”

Landstrom says that BLCN will continue to remain proactive during the pandemic to keep members of the community safe.

“We had our borders up way before there was even a case in a close proximity to us, so we were taking every precaution in the beginning of April, and now that there is a case in Lac La Biche, there is no better time than now to keep enforcing that,” said Landstrom.