Cambridge Bay joins Nunavut’s COVID-19 list
94 cases of respiratory disease confirmed in nine communities since Dec. 21
Cambridge Bay is the ninth Nunavut community to report a case of COVID-19 since Dec. 21, the Government of Nunavut said on Thursday. Twenty new cases were confirmed Thursday, bringing the territory’s active case count to 94. (File photo by Dustin Patar)
COVID-19 has been detected in Cambridge Bay, bringing to nine the number of Nunavut communities with active cases of the disease, the territorial government reported Thursday in a news release.
There are 94 cases across the territory, an increase of 20 compared to Wednesday’s count.
The number of cases in each community is as follows:
- Iqaluit — 31
- Rankin Inlet — 28
- Pangnirtung — 13
- Sanirajak — 10
- Arviat — 6
- Cambridge Bay — 2
- Qikiqtarjuaq — 2
- Igloolik — 1
- Baker Lake — 1
“The seriousness of the Omicron variant and how it is overwhelming our health-care system cannot be overstated,” chief public health officer Dr. Michael Patterson said, referring generally to the pressure Omicron has put on the system across Canada.
Omicron has still not yet been confirmed in Nunavut, Health Department spokesperson Chris Puglia said.
Patterson repeated his calls for people to stay home, not to gather with other people, wear a mask and get vaccinated. Shopping should be done by one person from each household to limit the number of people going into stores.
The Government of Nunavut also reminded Nunavummiut of travel restrictions in place for Iqaluit, Rankin Inlet, Pangnirtung, Sanirajak, Igloolik and Arviat. Travel to and from those communities is restricted to essential purposes only, the GN said.
People who develop COVID-19 symptoms should call the GN’s hotline at 1-888-975-8601. The GN asked people to be patient because there are longer-than-normal wait times to get through. The government reminded people not to go to a health centre in person.
COVID-19 symptoms include runny nose, cough, sore throat, fever or difficulty breathing.
Vaccines are available to everyone over the age of five years. Booster shots are available to people who are 18 years old and older whose second dose was at least four and a half months ago. For teens between 12 and 17, boosters are available six months after their second dose.
“The seriousness of the Omicron variant and how it is overwhelming our health-care system cannot be overstated”
That is at best poorly phrased, at worst calculated misinformation intended to scare people into compliance.
Dr. Patterson clearly said at yesterday’s press conference that the only significant pressure on the system to date was from contact tracing. Did we max out the rest in 24 hours?
Many jurisdictions have stopped contact tracing for Omicron except for long-term care homes, etc. It’s a pointless wild goose chase given how fast this is spreading. And Omicron hasn’t overwhelmed health care systems anywhere. Are we going to let this royally screw up 2022 too?
cross training staff is not a new idea, other staff could be quite capable of contact tracing efforts, this just needs to be a decision from the health care in Nunavut, to appropriate workers in a direction that is successful, either way we need to sit back and let omicron hit its peak toward the end of January, and hope this is the last wave. Stay safe
We would like to have our 3rd booster shot but we have been told to wait and sometime we will be called after. it has been over a week and I know of others who were told to wait for two weeks. Seems like it is not that important to get a booster but we think it is.
Gn too busy doing useless contact tracing instead of having jabs in arms!
Gotta laugh at these keyboard medical experts.
By now you should know it is YOUR responsibility to get your vaccines, not the GN.
And for Pandemonic Prophet:
“The seriousness of the Omicron variant and how it is overwhelming our health-care system cannot be overstated,” chief public health officer Dr. Michael Patterson said, referring generally to the pressure Omicron has put on the system across Canada.
Your own comments (and you obviously don’t identify yourself as other than a keyboard expert) show the number of misleading comments and information that is being spread by people like you.
Your comment might be taken seriously if you identified yourself.
For now, I will follow the guidance of Dr. Patterson and HIS expert staff
I have to say Paul, one thing I have noticed over the years of following and commenting on NN stories is that there is really no noticeable difference in the quality or believably of comments between persons who use their real name and ones who use a pseudonym. In fact the most interesting comments I have ever read were anonymous, while some of the most facile were not so. Either way, nothing about using a real name adds “seriousness” as far as I can tell.
What makes you think this is the case?
Hey Paul, when the vaccines first came out there were a total of two nurses in Iqaluit giving the vaccine out. Two. It took longer than needed for vaccines to be rolled out. I’m not surprised people across the territory are having some access issues since the logistics of the Department of Health are a bit of a joke. Two years in and it still takes nearly a week for PCR results across Nunavut?
.
I got my booster two days ago, thankfully, but Public Health in our community wasn’t planning to deliver any shots at all between Dec 15 and the New Year (probably around the 4th or later). I’m glad they changed tact on that, but apparently this was not done everywhere. This might be a good question for the media to ask our new Health Minister?