Second new COVID-19 case reported in Arviat

The Health Department reported a second new case of COVID-19 in Arviat on Saturday, a day after detecting the territory’s first new case since Dec. 28.

The person whose infection was disclosed Saturday is not showing symptoms of the respiratory disease, is doing well and in isolation, a Government of Nunavut news release states.

A statement issued Friday described the first new case the same way. In both cases, the GN did not identify the people, their age, sex, or whether there is any connection between them.

The chief public health officer, Dr. Michael Patterson, said there is no evidence of community transmission and the risk of the virus spreading is lower than it was in November, when COVID-19 was first detected in the territory.

Vaccinations began in Arviat on Jan. 13, resulting in more than 850 residents of the community getting inoculated.

In Arviat, 30 tests were performed in the past few days as part of the monitoring of COVID-19 in the community, but none of the tests detected anyone else infected with the virus.

Arviat is the Nunavut community hit hardest by COVID-19, with one death reported among the hamlet’s 223 cases, representing 83.5 per cent of the territory’s total cases.

On Saturday, the government also revised the total number of confirmed cases since COVID-19 arrived in the territory in November to 267. It made the adjustment after discovering a previous positive case had been inadvertently counted twice, the release states.