Red Cross, feds to deploy 8 nurses in Nunavut
Nurses will provide support in 4 communities with COVID-19 outbreaks
Dr. Michael Patterson, the territory’s chief public health officer, says the eight nurses who are travelling to Nunavut to help communities deal with their COVID-19 outbreaks will be doing testing, contact-tracing or administering vaccines — whatever the community needs. (Photo by David Venn)
Eight nurses from the south will be travelling to four Nunavut communities to help the territory’s battle against COVID-19.
The federal government has sent two nurses to Rankin Inlet, while six nurses from Red Cross will travel to Baker Lake, Taloyoak and Igloolik — “the communities currently with the most COVID-19 cases outside of Iqaluit,” said Health Minister John Main on Tuesday.
Chief public health officer Dr. Michael Patterson said the nurses will be working on anything COVID-19-related, but specifics will depend on the needs of the community.
“It could be testing, it could be contact-tracing, it could be administering vaccines, or all of the above, depending upon what the community needs,” Patterson said.
Last month, Premier P.J. Akeeagok announced the federal government was sending up three nurses to help ease staff shortages in Nunavut. At the time, it was unclear when the nurses, who all had experience working in Nunavut, were to arrive.
There are 366 positive cases of COVID-19 in the territory, as of Tuesday.
Main also provided an update on the outbreak at the elders home in Cambridge Bay.
He said 13 staff and elders have tested positive for COVID-19, but every elder is fully vaccinated and has received a booster shot.
“[That] will reduce the risk of serious illness and hospitalization,” he said.
Main, who reminds Nunavummiut to get vaccinated, said Health Department staff have administered more than 4,300 first and second doses of COVID-19 vaccines since Dec. 21, and a total of 12,520 booster shots.
Why are we importing nurses only to send money down south? We should be hiring local shamans!
Leeches, burning sage, and antlers aren’t gonna do much for alcohol poisoning or accidental decapitation’s.
Do journalists ask any questions anymore or just recycle GN news conferences? Why do they need to use nurses from the CAF and not redeploy those in local health centres? Where is the nursing agency contract? Why is John Main’s department not a) retaining nurses or b) hiring new ones? How many nurses have left and how many have been hired since Jan 1 2020?
We need more nurses on every community in Nunavut. Not just in affected or most affected communities. Even before Covid-19, all nurses working in Nunavut were burned out. Nunavut lacks everything!
Budget 2.5 billion 38,thousand people we need more money.
Open Beer and Wine/ Cannabis store in every Nunavut community, tax high but make it more affordable than what the Bootleggers charge.
better yet, remove all mining company’s out of Nunavut and run the mining.
“remove all mining company’s out of Nunavut and run the mining…” [into the ground].
What a joke… unbelievable that people seriously think non-sense like this. But they do…
Yes I agree..run the mines Ala gn..run it in the ground..take nti with it
Across Canada, both provincial/territorial, and federal governments have allowed our healthcare system to fail. This has been happening since before covid.
Well, here we are as a result.
Grise Fiord or Resalute bay have big cases. People not getting told what to do. Town is in troubble. Need help now. Bad