Nunavut cabinet minister Lightstone tests positive for COVID-19

Nunavut cabinet minister Adam Lightstone tested positive for COVID-19 over the weekend and has gone into isolation until at least Feb. 18, he said in an announcement his office released Monday afternoon.

Lightstone, an Iqaluit MLA who became minister of human resources and finance after last October’s election, said he and members of his household tested positive over the weekend. He is experiencing what he called “mild symptoms” but added he would continue to work during his isolation period.

“This positive result shows how, even with our best efforts, the Omicron variant increases the risk of infection,” Lightstone’s statement said.

Lightstone said he is fully vaccinated, got a booster shot and has been following public health measures.

“I have been diligent in maintaining physical distancing, wearing a mask in public, limiting shopping, and most challenging, minimizing visits or visitors to my home,” he said.

News of Lightstone’s diagnosis comes less than a week after Nunavut’s chief public health officer, Dr. Michael Patterson, who has led the territory’s response to the pandemic for nearly two years, said he needed to self-isolate because he had been exposed to someone who had tested positive.

There have been other recent cases of public officials testing positive or self-isolating because they were in contact with someone who contracted the disease.

Gov. Gen. Mary Simon announced last week that she tested positive.

On Jan. 31 — more than two weeks ago — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced he had tested positive and went into isolation. He has since resumed public duties, including speaking at a news conference in Ottawa Monday afternoon to announce his government invoked measures under the Emergencies Act for the first time in Canadian history to deal with the ongoing Freedom Convoy blockade, now in its third week in downtown Ottawa.