COVID-19 detected in Naujaat

Disease is present in 18 of Nunavut’s 25 communities, Patterson says

Naujaat is the latest Nunavut community where COVID-19 has been detected, according the chief public health officer Dr. Michael Patterson, who reported 133 confirmed cases of the disease in the territory on Saturday. (Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay)

By Nunatsiaq News

Naujaat is the latest Nunavut community where COVID-19 has been detected, as the number of communities where the disease is present grew on Saturday and the number of confirmed cases inched up.

The territory’s chief public health officer Dr. Michael Patterson reported five new confirmed cases in a statement issued Saturday, bringing the territory’s active caseload to 133. That’s an increase of five over the number of cases on Friday.

Patterson also reported a presumptive case in Naujaat, meaning a person is believed to have been infected but it has not been confirmed yet through testing.

At the beginning of January, the rapid spread of the Omicron variant forced Nunavut to stop testing every person who showed symptoms. Because of household spread, the government now considers people who show symptoms and who live in the same house as someone whose case has been confirmed to have the disease themselves — without being tested.

The government stopped testing every person to relieve pressure on health-care staff who do testing for COVID-19 in addition to other illnesses. A presumptive case in Naujaat, a hamlet of about 1,100 in the northeastern part of the Kivalliq region, means COVID-19 is known or suspected to be in 18 of the territory’s 25 communities. Presumptive cases recently reported in Gjoa Haven, Kugaaruk and Taloyoak are also still awaiting confirmation through test results.

At the same time, to show how quickly Omicron spreads, the government began reporting communities — such as Naujaat — where COVID-19 has been detected even before test results confirm it.

On Saturday, the government reported confirmed active cases in the following communities:

  • Arviat — 8
  • Baker Lake — 13
  • Cambridge Bay — 10
  • Chesterfield Inlet —5
  • Coral Harbour — 12
  • Iqaluit — 21
  • Kinngait — 16
  • Pangnirtung — 5
  • Pond Inlet — 1
  • Qikiqtarjuaq — 1
  • Rankin Inlet — 27
  • Sanirajak — 5
  • Sanikiluaq — 1
  • Whale Cove — 8
  • Taloyoak — 0 (1 presumptive case)
  • Gjoa Haven — 0 (1 presumptive case)
  • Kugaaruk — 0 (1 presumptive case)
  • Naujaat — 0 (1 presumptive case)

Patterson and Premier P.J. Akeeagok are scheduled to provide a public update on the territory’s COVID-19 situation on Tuesday at 11 a.m., eastern time, which will be streamed from the legislative assembly.

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(7) Comments:

  1. Posted by Snappy 20 on

    “ The government stopped testing every person to relieve pressure on health-care staff …”

    Or, slightly different spin – since their lab techs quit, they can’t test because they don’t have the ability.

    Reminds me of a little kid being told they can’t play and then having a temper tantrum and screaming they didn’t want to play anyway. Except this isn’t play. This is deadly serious. We continue to see the daily cases count drop. How many cases do we really have? 500? 1000? How will we ever know? So on Monday we can expect test results in 24hrs again. But that only works if people are actually being tested.

    We should all believe the number of Covid cases is shrinking. And water is safe to drink in Iqaluit. Right PJ?

    Can we please have Joe and George running things again?

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    • Posted by Untermensch on

      This was a great comment, Snappy. You really hit the ball hard… but damn you lost me at the end

      “Can we please have Joe and George running things again?”

      Did that have to happen? I wish that didn’t happen

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      • Posted by Gong show on

        This new caucas is a gong show. At least we knew the right numbers of Covid cases when Joe was Premier. And when George was MOH.

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  2. Posted by Northern Inuit on

    We have not seen an update from the municipal government since mid last week in Cambridge Bay.

    Has the great GN who are insisting our numbers are declining pressuring the hamlet to stop contradicting them by releasing presumptive positive numbers like The Government of Nunavut themselves said they would do a week ago? Has the GN muzzled everyone in hopes of calming people so they don’t worry about easing the restrictions on Monday?

    What worries me as well as a lot of other employees is that they told all employees “back to work Monday, GN and Inuit Orgs. “ Then quietly said “but not to the public”

    But never elaborated further. You left it up to many individual department managers to take it upon themselves and post on FB they open but doors are still locked.

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    • Posted by The real numbers on

      At midweek, Cambridge Bay in reality had over 50 positive rapid tests…and that’s not checking everyone. If someone tested positive, they didn’t bother checking anyone else in the same home, they just assumed they all had it. So the real number is probably 100+…which is a bit different from 10, which is what the GN claims.

      And even that number is suspect if all they’re counting is confirmed PCR tests, because people have had samples taken over a week ago and still haven’t heard results back.

  3. Posted by Umingmak on

    We should, again, focus on the positive things. No deaths. No hospitalizations. No ICUs. The people I know throughout the territory who’ve had the virus say that the worst part of it has been the isolation. Big positive. Nunavut is proving itself to be strong & resilient, as we’ve always known it to be.

    • Posted by Respond to Umingmak on

      Do you honestly think the GN is going to share any hospitalization due to Covid? When they aren’t sharing the actual numbers anymore as they felt overwhelmed with the demand of testing everyone due to shortage of staff?

      I only wished they would pitch in to give those lab technicians their bonus instead of getting these contractors for IT they get along with hiring consultants to help write shitty reports.

      We were seeing actual numbers and people didn’t put their guard down. Now they will skyrocket as everyone will assume it’s very low and go abouts.

      It’s hard to be positive when you have the GN not giving people what they deserve and that is simply the truth in number of active Covid cases

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