SASKATOON -- An hour after staff finished disinfecting because of something a customer mentioned— she came back and had something else to say.
"We were flabbergasted," Rheanne Haines, who owns and manages the Sangster's Health Centre location in Lawson Heights Mall, said in an interview over the phone.
"The rest of the people in the store asked us if we heard her correctly."
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Haines, who emphasizes she is only speaking for herself, not the Sangster's chain, said on Wednesday a customer came into the store and casually mentioned she had just returned from an international trip.
"She said she got off a plane from Hawaii yesterday and since she wasn't showing any symptoms, she feels fine. She figured it's okay to go and pick up all of her things," Haines said.
"She left the store; we disinfected everything with bleach."
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To help reduce the spread of COVID-19, provincial health officials are strongly advising those who have traveled outside the province to self-isolate for 14 days and to self-monitor for respiratory or flu-like symptoms during that time.
After the thorough scrub-down, staff got on with their day.
But according to Haines that all changed after the same customer returned to pick up an additional item and shared a more concerning detail about her recent holiday.
"(The customer mentioned) she had traveled with 11 other people who had been feeling sick but she was okay and not showing any symptoms so she thought it was fine to go out and pick up things," Haines said.
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"Our staff made horrified expressions at her and began disinfecting things in front of her and she left."
Haines was left deeply troubled by the incident, which came the same day as the announcement of eight more presumptive cases of COVID-19 in Saskatchewan and a provincial state of emergency declaration.
She decided to share the story on social media, hoping the precautionary tale may encourage others to think about their behaviour.
"It's irresponsible, we have a social contract between human beings to take care of each other," Haines said.
"We shouldn't be putting people at risk for no reason."
In the hours after the incident, Haines decided to close her store to in-person shopping.