PAQTNKEK: Across Canada there are 216 cases of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) reported among First Nations living on-reserve, however there hasn’t been any positive tests to date in Nova Scotia, or any of the other Maritime provinces.
This equates to 0.23 per cent of all reported cases nationwide.
“We are cautiously optimistic that nationally, the First Nations on-reserve curve continues to show signs of flattening if there’s no future spread of COVID in First Nations communities,” Dr. Tom Wong, executive director and chief medical officer of public health, Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) said. “This has been accomplished by impressive First Nations leadership and decisive actions, in using public health measures, including lockdown, physical distancing, prompt isolation, avoiding crowds, hand and cough hygiene and it has paid off.”
Wong suggested communities require help from provincial and territorial health departments and agencies to support Indigenous peoples to obtain a comprehensive epidemiological picture beyond First Nations on-reserve.
Timely epidemiological data collected by ISC is only available for First Nations living on-reserve.
On May 29, the federal government made an additional $650 million available for Indigenous communities to deal with and react to the “evolving needs” caused by the ongoing pandemic and prepare for a potential second wave of the pandemic.
The new funding will go toward the public health response to the pandemic, the on-reserve income assistance program and the construction of new women’s shelters.
Since mid-March, ISC has made over $1.3 billion available to Indigenous communities to deal with pandemic-related needs.
Communities themselves will decide what is best for them and it’s important to recognize the inherent rights and self-determination of the First Nations, Metis, and Inuit people, he said.
Officials with Paqtnkek Mi’kmaw Nation recently established their own pandemic safety by-law to combat COVID-19.
If required, the by-law allows Paqtnkek band councillors to order measures including; mandatory curfews, checkpoints, and even a full lockdown of the community.
Chief Paul Prosper said it also gives them power to enforce the by-law with repercussions as high as a $1,000 fine or up to 30-days in jail.
He suggested they need those options to enforce measures that protect their residents.
“We’re a small community, but we’re a tight community, and we have to be conscious of some of the realities within communities,” Prosper said. “Overcrowded conditions within a lot of our homes, multigenerational families living under the same roof, we need to respond in a timely manner.”
He said it’s imperative to control the flow of people in their community, which includes high-risk, vulnerable seniors. They’ll handle issues on a case-by-case basis and utilize the by-law if necessary.
Less than 80-kilometres away, the Chief of We’koqma’q First Nation said the pandemic brought with it long-standing issues with sport fishers in their community.
Chief Rod Googoo explained they asked the Department of Fisheries and Oceans to close part of Whycocomagh Bay to protect communities in the area, and on May 6, they did so.
Problems began to arise as he indicated well over 100 cars were parked along the section of Highway 105, running through the heart of their community, just after the province removed restrictions on sport fishing May 1.
“In no parking zones, in driveways, in the work area. I had my fish farm workers dodging 18-wheelers as they were coming around these vehicles,” Googoo said. “I’m glad it’s over. Somebody was going to get hurt bad or something was going to happen, it was a disaster waiting to happen.”
There were extra issues he indicated because of the virus, and sport fishers weren’t respecting physical distancing, and that closing the bay was the best way to protect themselves and their neighbours.
Numbers provided by ISC indicate 81.5 per cent of the total cases have recovered to date.
Of the 216 cases, 20 cases or nine per cent have required hospitalization. There has been five deaths on-reserve and the case fatality rate is at two per cent, which is below Canada’s overall case fatality rate of seven per cent.