Sai Ram Dear Devotees

Since our previous email regarding the Precautionary measures for preventing CORONAVIRUS, within days, we are now facing a Global Pandemic.

Therefore, at this time the most effective measures we can take as an organization is to cancel all public events and gatherings.

In an effort to keep all devotees healthy and safe, SSIO Canada and the Medical Team has decided to close all centres and suspend all its activities till April 30th 2020. This includes devotional singing, SSE classes, study circles, Center events, meetings, and all internal and external service activities. Centres can continue to hold teleconferences.

In addition, in response to the evolving nature of COVID-19 (Coronavirus) and concern for the health and safety of members, the Sathya Sai International Organization has decided to take the precaution of cancelling all the upcoming major SSIO events until June 15, 2020. This includes W4Vs and H V days celebrations where we expect public and large gathering of people.

As an organization in the community, we must be part of the solution to stop the spread of the virus. The decision to close all centres was taken after much deliberation and thought. All centres and DVGs must comply with the request instead of putting Sai devotees, the communities, and the public’s health and lives at risk.

In Canada we now have cases of community transmission (i.e. those who have no contact or travel history risk for COVID -19 ). This means that we will now see more cases in the community and the rate of spread will be harder to contain. Many individuals who have the virus will have no symptoms initially, and thus can spread the virus without knowing they have it. We cannot stop this pandemic now but we can help control the rate of spread by introducing measures such as social distancing and cancelling public gatherings. In Canada we have a chance to act and avoid the rapid increase in cases that have occurred in other countries. Pandemics such as this put a huge burden on the medical system, and have a high cost to communities, families and individuals. Control of spread is key.

PLEASE SEE BELOW FOR CURRENT HEALTH CANADA RECOMMENDATIONS :

For Communities

Social distancing measures are a way to minimize COVID-19 transmission in the community. This means minimizing close contact with others during the peak of an outbreak. In addition to staying home when ill, we should plan for actions we can take if we need to reduce the spread of infection in places where we gather.

https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/diseases/2019-novel-coronavirus-infection/being-prepared.html#a3

We will be monitoring and evaluating how things unfold and recommend accordingly. Please watch for bulletins and recommendations on a weekly basis.

The best way we can help ourselves, our families, and our communities is to follow health Canada precautionary guidelines, to do prayers and serve those in need.

SSIO MEDICAL WING
Dr Nishi Dhawan, Dr. Avi Ramswaroop, Patricia Stevens

Preeti Mathur
President SSIO Canada