Nunavut health officials took advantage of last Friday’s press briefing to castigate residents of Iqaluit for their recklessness leading to the further spread of COVID-19.
Lorne Kusugak, Nunavut health minister, urged Iqaluit residents to obey health guidelines so that everyone can have a great time during this short summer.
He asked residents to chase away people who want to come to their homes for parties and refrain from attending parties themselves.
Illegal gatherings have cause further spread of the virus this week, this is according to Dr. Michael Patterson, the Chief Public Health Officer. Such gatherings include going outside unmasked, and visiting neighboring households.
At one point, a gathering consisting of several households caused 3 to go into isolation. Gathering are causing the largest spread of the virus in Nunavut, Patterson noted.
On Friday, health officials announced 12 infections, 8 recoveries, which places Nunavut’s active caseload at 78.
During Friday’s press briefing, Patterson urged residents of Nunavut to work with the surveillance testing team that is working round the clock. He noted that some people refused to be tested because they fear isolation.
As regards the lockdown, Patterson said that they can only declare it over a month after the last active case recuperates, although he added that there are a number of things they can do to ease measures.
Previously, the government’s threshold for determining whether to ease restrictions was based on there being no spread to homes with no previous cases of the virus.
However, Patterson noted this threshold no longer makes sense considering that people continue to get vaccinated. He added that easing restrictions at this point would be quite confusing and increase the risk of more infections cropping up.
Health officials in Nunavut are working to have more of the Pfizer vaccine brought in. it will be administered to persons aged at least 12 years, although no timeline has been issued for when this will take place.
