Key takeaways:
- Nunavut’s COVID-19 case total rose to 210 on Tuesday.
- Only citizens can journey to and from the community, and only for important causes.
- Health officials declared Tuesday that the community now has seven authorised cases of COVID-19.
Health officials restrict travel as omicron cases rise:
Nunavut health officials have counted Cambridge Bay and Kinngait to the list of communities where the only necessary journey is permitted, and only by citizens, after both communities showed indications of COVID-19 spread.
The communities join a growing list of zones with travel limitations — including Arviat, Igloolik, Iqaluit, Pangnirtung, Rankin Inlet and Sanirajak — as case totals in Nunavut resume to grow. Nunavut citizens remain under severe public health steps till at least Jan. 17.
In a news release Tuesday morning, Chief Public Health Officer Dr Michael Patterson declared there are six actual cases in Kinngait. There are also three cases in Cambridge Bay that are deemed hypothetical, meaning health officials consider those individuals have COVID-19 but haven’t verified it yet.
“The new cases indicate a high risk of community transmission in Cambridge Bay and Kinngait, which cannot be ignored,” Patterson said in the news release. Source – cbc.ca
Also read: Life in Arviat reaches to ‘halt’ as Nunavut’s COVID-19 cases double in 4 days
Patterson also declared one assumptive case in Sanikiluaq.
Nunavut now has 210 verified cases of COVID-19. Fifty-five of those are in Iqaluit, 48 are in Arviat, 44 are in Rankin Inlet, 19 are in Pangnirtung, 15 are in Igloolik, 14 are in Sanirajak, seven are in Kinngait, three are in Qikiqtarjuaq, two are in Chesterfield Inlet, one is in Baker Lake, and one verified cases is in Cambridge Bay.
Those case totals do not contain assumptive cases.
Patterson is anticipated to give an update on the COVID-19 position in Nunavut Thursday at 11 a.m. ET, alongside Premier P.J. Akeeagok.
