Nunavut has 10 new COVID-19 cases, the territorial government said over the weekend. (File image)
Nunavut COVID-19 count climbs by 10 over weekend
Arviat accounts for new cases as territory continues to recover
The Government of Nunavut reported 10 new cases of COVID-19 in the territory over the weekend — eight on Saturday and two more on Sunday.
All of the new cases are in Arviat, the territory’s hardest-hit community, which now counts 46 active cases of the virus.
As of Dec. 6, Arviat, which has a population of about 3,000, has seen 174 COVD-19 cases confirmed.
Of these 128 have recovered.
Whale Cove sits at 21 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 16 recovered cases, and five still active.
Rankin Inlet, where there had been 19 cases, and Sanikiluaq, where there were two cases, no new active cases were reported.
In both of those communities, all previously infected people have recovered.
Nunavut now stands at 216 confirmed, 165 recovered and 51 active cases of COVID-19.
However, the hospitalization and ICU numbers were not reported by the Government of Nunavut in its online weekend updates.
A handful of Nunavut residents with COVID-19 have been evacuated to a Winnipeg hospital over the past week, government officials said on Friday, Dec. 4.
Dr. Michael Patterson, Nunavut’s chief public health officer, disclosed the medevacs at a Friday, Dec. 4, news conference, saying there had been “less than five” over the past week.
The territory emerged from a two-week lockdown Dec. 2 that had been in place since Nov. 18.
Arviat remains in lockdown while restrictions were eased last week in other parts of the territory.
Across Canada, more than 413,000 cases of COVID-19 have been reported since March when the pandemic began. Of these 328,000 have recovered and 2,628 have died. No deaths have been reported in Nunavut.
In Nunavut, Nunavik and across the country, public health officials have encouraged physical distancing, hand washing and wearing masks in public places as measures people should take to prevent the spread of the disease.
WASH YOUR HANDS – WEAR YOUR MASK – KEEP YOUR DISTANCE – STAY ALIVE.
There’s very likely people not following the recommendation of authorities. That’s a lot of new cases, even if many otherwise have recovered. The new cases popping up is concerning. More interventions needed.
It’s quite likely that many people are not following the guidelines, at least some of the time. Some of it may be intentional, people that don’t believe that Covid-19 is real, or a health risk (to them).
.
It may also be that there are a number of asymptomatic people carrying and spreading the virus. Scientists now think that as many as 80% of people who get Covid-19 have mild cases or are asymptomatic (no symptoms).
.
Even with people who become infected and eventually display symptoms research has shown that people may be contagious up to two days before symptoms show up. So these people are spreading the virus for two days before they even know that they have it.
.
This just reinforces how necessary it is for everyone to mask, wash hands, social distance. We really need to think and behave as if we are contagious, and everyone we meet is contagious, even though no one is showing symptoms.
I’m from Arviat and when I was heading to the gas station, several young kids were together playing outside. But not sure if they were from the same household.
Truthfully, it is likely that a few parents are not following the lockdown making it look bad for Arviat.