Nunavut mine’s COVID-19 testing no substitute for isolation, says chief medical officer
As of today, 356 people in Nunavut have been tested for COVID-19, with 247 under investigation and 109 people cleared. At a news conference earlier today, Michael Patterson, Nunavut’s chief medical officer, addressed an announcement made by Agnico Eagle late Sunday night that it would begin a pilot project to test workers for COVID-19. “At this time, there is no evidence that screening in this fashion is a substitute for 14 days of isolation,” Patterson said. The mine announced that starting today, it would offer testing to workers at its Meliadine mine site outside Rankin Inlet on a voluntary basis. “As a result, I informed management at Agnico Eagle that these tests do not change the current requirement for mine staff to stay out of the town of Rankin Inlet,” Patterson said. He also said the testing equipment used by Agnico Eagle does not meet Canadian standards and the Department of Health continues to pursue equipment that will allow testing to be done in all of Nunavut’s communities. See our story later at Nunatsiaq.com (Photo by Emma Tranter)
The GN needs to decree that all nonessential businesses shut down until this medical emergency is over, or when it can be reasonably demonstrated that the risk of transmission has been substantially reduced.
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This is not going to end soon. What does the mine plan on doing when the next shift change is scheduled? The majority of workers are from Quebec, the number one province for infected cases.
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Or does the mine plan on keeping the same shift on site for the next month, two months, three months? That would work well as people lose sleep over what is happening to their families left behind in the south. Accident rates will go up, and up, and up.
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GN, you have a duty and responsibility to ensure that all workers in Nunavut are safe. Even those at mine sites. Failure to act will open the GN to liability and lawsuits when things go wrong, and they will.
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Time to act.
yes I agree and putting 90 people on a plane at multiple pickup points , with no masks supplied as ppe, a signed piece of paper and temp check as screening ,who’s going to claim responsibility the government for allowing it to happen or the company for making it happen