COVID-19 in Indigenous communities: What you need to know
CBC
Indigenous Services Canada's chief medical officer of public health says there might be room for cautious optimism when it comes to COVID-19 trends on First Nations across Canada.
"Over this week, we have been seeing signs of active cases plateauing," said Dr. Tom Wong at a news conference Thursday.
Wong said active cases on First Nations have hovered around the 5,000-6,000 mark over the past week, but added cases are being underreported because of people self-administering their own tests at home.
"At this moment it's a little bit premature to say whether the curve will take another upswing, but based on the information from the past week, we are cautiously optimistic that we may be seeing a flattening of the curve," he said.
Indigenous Services Minister Patty Hajdu said the government is distributing $125 million among First Nations to help communities deal with the latest COVID-19 wave.
The total number of hospitalizations for people on First Nations due to COVID-19 has increased by 54 since Jan. 11, and there have been 15 more deaths since last week.
Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) said as of Jan. 19, there had been 2,544 total hospitalizations in First Nations communities due to COVID-19, and 588 deaths.
According to data from ISC, there were 5,097 active cases of COVID-19 reported in First Nations as of Jan. 19. This is up from the 4,985 active cases reported as of Jan. 11. Case numbers may be understated as some provinces are now limiting access to PCR tests.
To date, ISC is aware of a total of 4,908 cases in First Nations communities due to the Omicron variant: 3,243 in Eastern Canada and 1,665 in Western Canada. A total of 119 First Nations have reported cases of the strain.
The Government of Nunavut said as of Jan. 20, there are 175 active cases of COVID-19 in 19 communities.
To date, there have been 1,277 confirmed cases in Nunavut, 1,097 total recovered cases and five deaths. Nunavut says 25,197 people have received at least two vaccine doses.
Total cumulative First Nations case numbers per region:
British Columbia: 7,099
Alberta: 16,187
This story is part of CBC Health's Second Opinion, a weekly analysis of health and medical science news emailed to subscribers on Saturday mornings. If you haven't subscribed yet, you can do that by clicking here.
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