Nunavut announces presumptive case of COVID-19 at Mary River mine
“There has been no contact between Mary River workers and any of the surrounding communities,” says chief medical officer
A worker at Baffinland’s Mary River mine is presumed to have COVID-19. The person recently entered the territory, is in isolation, and did not come into contact with anyone outside the mine. (Photo courtesy of Baffinland)
One person who recently entered Nunavut to work at Baffinland’s Mary River mine is presumed to have COVID-19, the territory’s chief medical officer of health, Michael Patterson, announced today in a news release.
“The individual is in isolation away from co-workers and doing well,” Patterson said in the release.
“There has been no contact between Mary River workers and any of the surrounding communities.”
Since March, only people from outside Nunavut have been working at the mine, which is 176 kilometres southwest of Pond Inlet.
Nunavut’s Department of Health is “monitoring the situation closely,” and Baffinland has started to do contact tracing—tracking people who have been in contact with the person who is presumed to have COVID-19. All known contacts have been put into isolation, the release said.
“There is no need for Nunavummiut to worry about the spread of COVID-19 in relation to this case,” Nunavut’s minister of health, George Hickes, said in the release.
Operations at the mine are expected to continue as usual, and there will be no changes to current public health measures, or to the Government of Nunavut’s plan to reopen services in the territory.
it’s great the locals are isolating to keep the spread of the virus away from their communities, what about all of us from the south that now have to risk affecting our families . we should be tested at the lux terminal before even getting on the plane . da
If you read the other article, you’d see that this person tested negative on their original test upon arriving at Baffinland. So even if he had been tested before getting on the plane, he would’ve still been on the place.
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It is unfortunate that the other workers at the mine are at risk, however anybody going to work, or even grocery shopping, is taking a risk of being infected. I imagine that, if you’re working at the mine now, you will be tested numerous other times before heading home to your family, so I’d say your risk level of affecting your family is incredibly low compared to literally everybody else.