Nickel Belt News Volume 60 • Issue 50
Friday, December 11, 2020
Thompson, Manitoba
Serving the Norman Region since 1961
Northern Manitoba passes 1,200 total COVID-19 cases since pandemic began and reports 10th and 11th deaths in the region
BY IAN GRAHAM
EDITOR@THOMPSONCITIZEN.NET
Northern Manitoba passed 1,200 total cases of COVID-19 since the pandemic began in the spring with the announcement of more than 30 new cases Dec. 7. The region also reached double digits for COVID-19 fatalities with the 10th and 11th deaths of Northern Regional Health Authority (NRHA) residents announced Monday. One of the people who died was a woman in her 80s associated with the acute care unit outbreak at St. Anthony’s General Hospital in The Pas while the other was a man in his 90s from the Flin Flon/Snow/Lake/Cranberry/ Sherridon health district. Ten other deaths throughout the province were announced Dec. 7, bringing the total in Manitoba since the pandemic began to 407, at least 61 of which have occurred since the start of December. Three dozen new cases of COVID-19 were announced in the NRHA Dec. 7, including 15 new cases in the Bunibonibee/Oxford House/Manto Sipi/God’s
River/God’s Lake health district, nine in the Island Lake health district and seven in the Shamattawa/York Factory/Tataskweyak/Split Lake health district, though there were already 195 cases in the community of Shamattawa itself, which has about 1,300 residents, as of Dec. 7, according to Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak (MKO), some of which have yet to be confirmed by laboratory testing and added to provincial and regional totals. MKO Grand Chief Garrison Settee said in a Dec. 4 press release that the Canadian military was deploying to Shamattawa First Nation to assist with the ongoing outbreak and set up a field hospital. The Canadian Press reported Dec. 5 that approximately six Canadian Rangers reservists would be sent to Shamattawa to provide humanitarian assistance such as distributing food, firewood and care packages as well as providing information and transportation. Members of the Bear Clan and Canadian Red Cross are also travelling to the community to provide support,
MKO said. “I want to commend Chief Eric Redhead for his diligent advocacy for the residents of Shamattawa,” Settee said. “Last week he asked for help from the Canadian military and he did not stop asking for this assistance.” Churchill-Keewatinook Aski NDP MP Niki Ashton made a statement in Parliament Dec. 4 regarding the situation in Shamattawa, which is within the riding she represents, and condemning statements made last week by Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister, who said that the federal government reserving some of the province’s COVID-19 vaccine allocation for First Nations would “put Manitobans at the back of the line” by providing the province with the fewest doses for non-Indigenous residents. “He refuses to acknowledge that First Nations in Manitoba are Manitobans.” said Ashton. “He’s refused to commit to providing the vaccines they need and deserve.” Ashton also wrote to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to ask him to recog-
nize First Nations citizens in Manitoba as a priority group for a COVID-19 vaccine when it becomes available. Across the province, 325 new cases of COVID-19 were announced Monday, pushing the total since the pandemic began over 19,000. There were 310 Manitobans in hospital due to the virus Dec. 7, including 21 from the north. There were also 39 people in intensive care due to COVID-19 on Monday, three of whom were from the north. More than a third of the 115 Manitobans currently receiving critical care are COVID-19-positive, Manitoba chief nursing officer Lanette Siragusa said, with 33 of the 80 Manitobans currently on ventilators being treated for COVID-19 “Our hospitalization and intensive care numbers are still far higher than we would like them to be,” Siragusa said. Over the past week, 73 health care workers tested positive for COVID-19, including six from the NRHA. Since the pandemic began, nearly 1,000 health care workers have tested positive for the virus.
Chief provincial public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin said Monday that he couldn’t say exactly when new public health orders to replace those set to expire Dec. 11 would be announced but that it would be soon. “It’ll be early this week,” Roussin said. Modelling projections based on the number of COVID-19 cases in the province up to Nov. 30 were presented by Siragusa and chief provincial public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin at their Dec. 4 news conference. Up to the end of last month, for every 48 positive tests for COVID-19, three people were hospitalized and one person died, Roussin said. There could be as many as five to 10 times as many cases of COVID-19 in the province than have been diagnosed and currently the number of cases is within the range of the extreme modelling scenario, though the last few days the number of new cases has been at the lower end of that range. “It’s too early to say we are changing trajectory,” said Roussin, who said there
have been six schools in the province with more than five cases of COVID-19 where outbreaks were not declared and another six schools where there was evidence of in-school transmission. The north passed 1,100 COVID-19 cases with the announcement of 48 new positive tests on Thursday, the same day that the eighth death from the region – a man in his 50s from The Pas/ Opaskwayak Cree Nation/ Kelsey health district – was announced. The ninth death, a woman in her 60s linked to the outbreak at the hospital in The Pas, was announced Dec. 5. The province also announced in the past week that a potential public exposure to COVID-19 occurred at the Thompson General Hospital diagnostics/laboratory waiting room on Nov. 25 between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. and that the strict lockdown at Cross Lake/Pimicikamak Cree Nation ended Dec. 1 now that the transmission of COVID-19 has stabilized. As of Dec. 7, there were 16 active cases in the community, which previously had as many as 70.