Nunavut Territory authorities have announced four new cases of COVID-19

The announcement was made on Monday morning when Prime Minister Joe Savikataak and Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Michael Patterson made the first update of the region with Health Minister Lone Kusugak.

Did you miss the latest government information? Look at it here:

There are no new cases in Arviat, but Patterson warned last week that daily case presentations may reflect a turnaround of the test rather than the actual spread of the virus in the community.

“Due to test timing and flight variability, numbers fluctuate daily, no matter what’s happening in the community,” Patterson said. “Let’s say the weather is late and you may not be able to get a large number of samples until the next day. Therefore, one day it can literally go from zero to the next day.”

On Monday, Patterson said the health team was still finding evidence of a community infection in Arviat, but they are not sure if it is the remaining or ongoing infection.

Arviat has 98 cases. Since then, two previous cases in Sanikiluaq have recovered.

According to a news release from the territory on Monday, all active cases are currently in quarantine and are successful with mild to moderate symptoms.

According to Patterson, the health team is “working 24 hours a day” to track, test, quarantine, and contain spreads, and it will take time to see if current public health measures are working. That is.

It is still unclear how accurately COVID-19 invaded Nunavut, as the government’s focus remains on community support, Patterson said.

Environmental health officers in Nunavut fly to Winnipeg to inspect quarantine hubs, and another team is considering policies related to quarantine hubs in southern Nunavut.

Public health doctors are also considering links that could lead to infections in Manitoba’s public health, Patterson said.

He hopes that new cases will continue to be published, but said that if the number of new cases remains low, health measures will be taken as evidence that the infection has been successfully cut off.

Occurrence of Sanikiluaq

Two cases of Sanikiluaq have recovered, but the outbreak in the community is not over yet, Patterson said. It happens 28 days after the last person was infected.

When the contact tracer can’t find a new case and all contacts with the case are quarantined with known test results, Patterson says contract tracing is suspended.

He reassured Nunavummiut that an experienced contract tracer was excellent at getting the information he needed about his personal contacts while maintaining confidentiality.

Isolation reminder

Patterson took the opportunity of a press conference on Monday to talk about the importance of following quarantine measures, especially for those identified as contacts in positive COVID-19 cases.

“People can spread the virus without symptoms. This is what we mean by asymptomatic transmission. Some people can spread the virus for up to two days before symptoms appear. Some people are asymptomatic and can spread the virus for 10 days. Symptoms continue to appear. ”

He explained that by the time people knew they were ill, they would infect more people and spread the virus.

According to Patterson, the government has received general complaints that some people do not comply with quarantine rules, but has no specific name and date complaints and has not been fined for violating public health orders. ..

Those who are asked to quarantine should protect their space in the house as much as possible and regularly disinfect the busy areas of the house.

He said they weren’t supposed to go to the grocery store and instead asked friends and family to pick up and unload supplies.

When asked about the fears associated with unloading groceries to isolated people and how people without credit cards can order food, Savikataaq gave food to families affected by the Arvian settlement. Said that he was taking down the obstacles.

According to Sabikataak, the territorial government is working with the Family Services Department to ensure that food is delivered and that income-backed people can evaluate the case over the phone.

In the news release on Saturday Savikataak said he knew that the number of COVID-19 cases in the Nunavut Territory seemed horrifying. “But that’s not the reason for panic.”

“For some time we will see a decrease and increase in the number of cases,” he said.

On Friday, the Prime Minister called on Nunavummiut to wear masks and continue to focus on containment efforts, including not interacting with people outside the home.

“The virus doesn’t care how hard we work, how bored or tired we are,” he said in a Friday afternoon update.

“We can’t relax for a moment with what we’re doing. Don’t give us the opportunity to hold more in any of our communities.”