Mayor of Ulukhaktok hopeful 1st outbreak won't lead to serious cases
CBC
The mayor of Ulukhaktok, N.W.T., is urging people in the community to take health guidelines seriously and isolate if they show any symptoms of COVID-19, now that the community is facing its first COVID-19 outbreak
On Monday the territory announced 33 cases in the community of just over 480 people.
"Isolate, wash, social distance, wear your masks," Mayor Joshua Oliktoak told the CBC.
"Only way we'll get past this is together, but we have to make sure that we contain the virus first."
Oliktoak said he heard of the first few cases on Friday, and after that it spread very quickly.
Oliktoak said many people in his community have had their second dose of the vaccine, and there was a booster clinic there recently.
According to the N.W.T.'s COVID-19 dashboard, 90 per cent of people aged five and older in Ulukhaktok are fully vaccinated.
Oliktoak says he's hopeful that means the community will avoid serious illness.
"A lot of the cases in the kids are minor symptoms, but still it is the virus, so hopefully they're coping," he said.
Oliktoak says most of the town has been closed down, other than essential services like the store.
On Monday the territorial health and social services authority announced — via a letter on the hamlet's Facebook page — that the health centre would only be open to emergencies until Friday, due to staffing issues.
"Pretty much all offices or public places are closed until further notice. We have quite a few cases in town, so it's going to stay closed for a bit," he said.
The latest update to the Territorial government's COVID-19 Dashboard shows there are 823 active cases in the N.W.T. That's down from 925 cases on Monday.
There have been 85 hospitalisations, 24 ICU admissions and 17 deaths since the pandemic began.
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