Nunavut counts more than 150 new COVID-19 cases over weekend
Over 5% of Igloolik residents test positive for the virus
There were a total of 472 active cases of COVID-19 in Nunavut on Monday. (Graphic by Mélanie Ritchot)
Over 150 new cases of COVID-19 were tallied across Nunavut over the weekend, with Igloolik surpassing 100 cases and Iqaluit more than doubling its case count.
The territory’s active case count was 472 on Monday.
Igloolik is experiencing the largest outbreak in Nunavut, with 5.5 per cent of its population of about 2,000 testing positive for the virus. This number does not include cases diagnosed based on symptoms.
Igloolik remains the only community on full lockdown, with schools and all non-essential businesses closed, and travel restricted to essential purposes only.
It is also the community with the lowest vaccination rate in Nunavut, with 54 per cent of eligible residents fully vaccinated.
The territory-wide case count broke a record when it surpassed 300 for the first time on Friday, then jumped to 472 by the start of this week.
Nunavut’s 472 cases by community:
- Arviat — 24
- Baker Lake — 43
- Cambridge Bay — 41
- Chesterfield Inlet — 1
- Coral Harbour — 29
- Igloolik — 108
- Iqaluit — 86
- Kinngait — 20
- Kugluktuk — 10
- Naujaat — 4
- Pangnirtung — 2
- Pond Inlet — 15
- Qikiqtarjuaq — 2
- Rankin Inlet — 26
- Sanikiluaq — 28
- Sanirajak — 6
- Taloyoak — 20
- Whale Cove — 7
Kugluktuk’s case count went from two to 10 over the weekend, while Pond Inlet’s count doubled, going from seven to 14 active cases on Monday.
A case was detected in Pangnirtung on Saturday after 10 days with 0 active cases.
Iqaluit has the highest case count behind Igloolik with 86 cases, which makes up about one per cent of the population.
Looking at cases per capita, Coral Harbour, Sanikiluaq and Cambridge Bay have the most cases for their population size, after Igloolik.
Schools in Iqaluit are opening at full capacity on Monday, for the first time during this wave of the pandemic.
Schools in Baker Lake, Cambridge Bay, Kinngait, Arviat, Rankin Inlet and Sanikiluaq are open at half capacity, while the rest of Nunavut’s schools are at full capacity, aside from Igloolik and Taloyoak, where schools remain closed.
Mass vaccine clinics are coming to 16 communities in February and more pediatric vaccines will arrive in Nunavut in the coming days.
Nunavut’s chief public health officer, Dr. Michael Patterson, and Premier P.J. Akeeagok are scheduled to give an update on the COVID-19 situation in the territory on Tuesday at 11 a.m. ET, which can be live streamed on the legislative assembly’s website.
Correction: This story has been updated to add Taloyoak to the list of schools that were closed at the time of publication.
Close iqaluit schools before half the town ends up with covid
absolutely insane having iqaluit schools open 100%. they also have no n95s or hepa filters. who made this decision to open them 100%
Sorry people, this virus is not going away for a long while, have to learn to live with it.
Learning to live with something doesn’t mean you pretend it doesn’t exist. Precautions should be taken, as the comment above mentions. N95s, hepa filters or other measures should be exercised, particularly since the long term effects of covid unknown.
I checked the price of N95 mask online , not cheap compared to regular mask that everyone is using and collect a good pay.
THIS!!! People think that “endemic” means “back to normal”.
It doesn’t. It means we failed to stop a new disease and now the world is different.
“We” didn’t fail to stop it. Once there were more than a few thousand cases in Wuhan all this was a foregone conclusion. Which isn’t to say that Canada would have done any better. But all we’ve been doing is delaying the inevitable and providing breathing room for hospitals.
But there’s no reason to think this won’t end up joining the other coronaviruses as part of the common cold family. That might take a generation, but that is the way forward.
Tell that to SARS CoV-1 … oh wait.
Just close down until the case numbers drop
Open , shut , open shut , that is what has been going on for the last 2 yrs. what do you figure , 2 more yrs?
It’s going to be too hard on the medical staf and with limited space at the hospital
This variant is relatively mild. The medical community is saying the best defense against covid is 3 shots + a positive covid test. This is a good opportunity for Nunavummiut to start working towards herd immunity and developing antibodies. Covid is here forever, we must learn to live with it and move on. NO MORE CLOSURES.
This variant is not “mild” and people need to stop saying that it is.
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It is still a DEADLY virus!
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Many more people are now vaccinated with 1, 2, or 3 shots of vaccine which primes their immune system to fight the virus more effectively. If you are fully vaccinated you may, and I stress “MAY” have mild symptoms.
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Omicron does initially infect the upper respiratory passages (nose/throat) first, rather than the lower respiratory passages (lungs) and it does seem to reproduce slower giving the immune system more time to react and attack the virus.
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If unvaccinated, and/or immune compromised Omicron may still make it’s ways to a person’s lungs and kill them just as effectively as the original coronavirus, and just as effectively as Delta.
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Omicron is also vastly more contagious than Delta, therefore more people will become infected, especially the unvaccinated.
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Compare the number of deaths in January 2021 vs January 2022. Unofficial numbers that I track put Jan 2021 at 4,393 and Jan 2022 at 3,478.
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Jan 2021 was the deadliest month in Canada for Covid-19 (4,393), March 2020 when the virus first hit was the second deadliest month (4,084), and this past month Jan 2022 was the third deadliest month (3,478).
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MILD? Tell that to the nearly 3,500 families burying a family member this month.
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To everyone reading this, get vaccinated if you are not already vaccinated. Get your second and third shots. It may just save your life if you get infected.
Old Trapper, since you are triple vax, why don’t you do every Canadian a favour and get a class 1 drivers licence to pick up the slack created by your beloved vaccine mandate?
Do you really think that posting in the Nunatsiaq under every single covid related article is going to solve the mess we are in?
As our beloved Prime Minister would put it: Your message was heard, now is time to leave the Nunatsiaq comment section 😉
Sorry but I’m retired. I’ve done my time in the workforce, in fact there were far too many 60 to 80 hour work weeks. Of course I would like to enjoy my retirement years and not have them end prematurely because some idiot who didn’t get vaccinated went out and spread the virus to 5 or 10 other people.
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Glad to know that you read my posts. I’m surprised that you have learned so little, but then I can only put the facts out there, I can’t do your thinking for you.
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I’ve tried to limit my posting in the last few months as any reasonable person of average intelligence should be able to figure out that there is no down side to getting vaccinated. I do however feel the need to step in and correct blatant misinformation such as describing the Omicron variant as “mild”.
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I think that we can all agree that the pandemic has gone on far too long. Just remember that the virus doesn’t care one way or the other. It will keep on trying to reproduce and when it does it mutates. Let’s hope that one of those very contagious mutations is actually a more mild variant than the original, Delta, or Omicron.
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Heaven help us all if it goes the other way and turns into something with the mortality rate of the original SARS or an airborne Ebola.
Old trapper, my freedom doesn’t end where your fear starts.
I am triple vax and will take as many dose as I feel I will need to keep me safe.
We live in an imperfect world and one need to accept living in it with a certain level of risk. If you are reasonable person, you understand that there will always be a certain percentage of people refusing medical treatment and trying to convince them otherwise is futile. Drugs are
illegal yet still heavily used, smoking is pretty bad yet something like 60% of Nunavutmiut adults are smokers…
You are retired, you have the choice to stay home and go out as little as possible.
I am in my prime working years, I have young childrens in daycare and school and I considered that I have sheltered them as best as I could from this. Not a single person in my household got sick since the beginning of this pandemic, correction, I needed to take a day off after my 2nd dose of Moderna vaccine because that’s how sick I ended up and so did my spouse.
Give me an example of politicians solving a complex problem and maybe I will start paying attention to your arguments but until you correct me, I will say this: The virus do not care about lockdowns, masks, vaccine pass, cross borders restrictions, etc. This is politicians controling things because control is a natural reaction to fear. You are afraid so you ask for more control.
Politicians should be laser focused on 2 things only:
-Make the vaccine way easier to get ( there is still logistical issues with the Pfizer vaccine in the north)
-Improve the health care system to a level comparable to any socialist european country ( I will let you choose the one you prefer, hint on how to achieve that, they all have a certain degree of private sector involvement).
Any other measures is just a pathetic remainder of how useless our politicians are.
That being said, for the future of my children, schools need to open and you need to stop putting pressure on families that are working hard to keep paying for your pension every month. Most Canadian I know is imperfectly trying to navigate those political restrictions but by being overzealous and preventing people to express differents view it eventually lead to what is happening in Ottawa as we speak.
Old Trucker, you hit the nail in the head. Thank you!
Old Trapper, serious question for you. What is the case fatality rate in Nunavut? The comment you are responding to said the omicron variant is “relatively mild”.. you immediately jumped on your horse and complained that it is not “mild”!!!!
As I see it, you distorted the point.
This is a quote from another story “There have been 684 recovered cases and one death during this wave of the pandemic”. (so, what, 1/10 of 1% ?)
In all the history of pandemics that is a very low case fatality rate, to call it ‘relatively mild’ seems more than accurate to me.
So mild that someone died? It is not mild, more contagious yes, scientists are still learning more about this variant and other variants. Long term effects and so on.
GN opened up way too soon, I hope no one else will die from this. We still need to take precautions even if you are sick of this Covid like all of us are.
Only thing that seems to be open is the schools. Nice that you want to create herd immunity by using the children. So much for children first.
That’s the new Minister of Education for you, go figure.
Not surprised at all about the high number of cases in Igloolik. Most of the population is very young and the partying is out of control. So is overcrowding thanks to the housing situation. Sit tight. Respect the restrictions. Good luck.
You forgot to mention one important piece of information: Igloolik has the second-lowest rate of vaccination in all of Nunavut. It is barely above 50%. Why else do you think they went into lockdown as their case numbers started rising?
Thanks to our friendly Chief Public Health Officer, our territory is now a coronavirus and omicron hazard to everyone .
That is just a plain ignorant thing to say! Look at the housing situation, the fact we have next to no advanced medical care in any community, the fact we must travel by air in and out for most extended dental or medical and the fact we rely on a strong southern population for most essential positions…be grateful the situation isn’t far worse. Dr. Patterson has done a remarkable job at keeping us as healthy and safe as possible. The fact that many people can’t listen to that guidance is not his fault. Shame on you for putting this on him.
I couldn’t agree more Gjoa Haven. The comment made by Frank is just unspoken for, but unfortunately, he speaks for many Nunavut residents who quite frankly don’t understand, don’t give a rat, or are just followers, like the idiots in Ottawa
2 years, times up. Open things up like UK, Denmark, etc. Learn to live with it. If you are scared to leave your house, stay home.
We’re all petulant little children.
I hope the next few pandemics aren’t bad. Because we handled this one well enough that people have the privilege of assuming it was nothing. We’ll handle the next one much worse because of it… hopefully it isn’t a hemorrhagic fever or something.
Remember, dear commenter. This is the first time covid has been in almost all of these communities.
We haven’t been subject to super restrictive mandates until NOW.
Can’t even give up pop or other addictions to save a neighbor
we must learn to live with this like we do with the flu, its here to stay. get the virus, make your body learn to fight the virus with antibodies. that’s the only way we can pass this virus. people will die, that’s a fact just as the flu would do to people. theres no nice way to say it but its fact.
The safest option is for everyone to get vaccinated.
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People smarter than you (and me) have run the numbers and done different scenarios, mortality rates, R0 numbers, hospital and ICU beds, number of doctors and nurses, etc.
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The fewest people die when you vaccinate the most people. The pandemic also ends sooner, and the economy does better.
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Why is it so difficult to understand. GET VACCINATED. Are you just afraid of a little needle?
All this bullying of the non-vaxed on this and other stories is disturbing.
I’m fully vaccinated and boosted. That was my choice. other people may choose to avoid vaccination. That’s their call.
Personally, I don’t give a rat’s ass if some people choose to remain unvaccinated.
Sorry Jimmy it doesn’t work that way when you have a deadly infectious virus and people who take no action to prevent it’s spread. I’m tired of the anti-vaxxer crap.
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If you want to be part of society get vaccinated. I’m tired of being fully vaccinated and being forced to stay at home because of unvaccinated idiots.
Jimmy said he was vaccinated. Vaccination doesn’t stop the spread, although it might slow it and it definitely improves outcomes.
If you are afraid of the virus, by all means stay home if you can! Don’t advocate for unrealistic public strictures that apply to everyone to quell your personal fears.
I’m not with the truckers, but I do believe that two years in, with vaccines, Omicron and a lot more knowledge the onus is now squarely on the the authorities to clearly justify their restrictions in light of the many costs they are imposing on society. To my knowledge that hasn’t been done, and it’s time.