The Island Lake region of Northern Manitoba has recorded its first positive test for COVID-19, the provincial government announced Sept. 30.
That was the only new positive test for COVID-19 in the Northern Regional Health Authority area on Wednesday, bringing the total for the region to 17 since the pandemic began. Thirteen of those cases are considered active, eight of them in the Shamattawa/York Factory First Nation (YFFN)/Tataskweyak Cree Nation/Split Lake health district, where seven members of the same family have tested positive for the virus after one of them travelled to Winnipeg for medical care. YFFN Chief Leroy Constant toldCBC that one of the members of the family is in hospital right now but that the rest of the family is doing well.
A federal rapid response team with six members arrived in the First Nation, located in York Landing south of Split Lake, on Sept. 29 to set up rapid testing of close contact with the family who tested positive.
The Winnipeg Free Press reported Sept. 29 that dozens f people in York Landing were quarantining and that some were beginning to show symptoms of novel coronavirus infection, while Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak Grand Chief Garrison Settee said that at least 65 people had come into close contact with members of the family that tested positive and were isolating at home or in a York Landing motel.
The First Nation has an isolation centre that can hold 27 people, the CBC reported.
Churchill-Keewatinook Aski NDP MP Niki Ashton, whose riding includes York Landing, said during question period in Parliament Tuesday that the First Nation needs protective equipment, medical personnel and mental health supports immediately, to which Indigenous Services Minister Marc miller replied that the rapid response team has been deployed and that the federal government has sent five shipments of personal protective equipment to YFFN.
“I am also calling on the provincial government to step up and immediately reinstate the essential ferry service," Ashton said in an email to media Sept. 29. “The community urgently requires propane, food and other goods. I would urge the provincial government to work with the First Nation to ensure that this service is provided in the safest possible manner. We know that COVID-19 can have a disproportionate impact on First Nations. The second wave is here. York Factory needs help now and all governments need to be working with First Nations to ensure that they are receiving the support they need.”
Thirty-nine other new cases of COVID-19 were reported by the province Sept. 30, including 31 in Winnipeg, four in the southern health region and two each in the Prairie mountain and Interlake-Eastman health regions.
There are 599 active cases of COVID-19 in the province now. Thirteen people are in hospital, including seven in intensive care and 20 people have died since the first positive test for COVID-19 was recorded in Manitoba in mid-March.
The total number of cases in Manitoba since the pandemic began is now 1,993.
