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Although the number of new COVID-19 cases nationwide has dropped sharply, Kashechewan First Nation in northern Ontario is in the midst of a disturbing new wave of coronavirus infections-most of the victims are children.
Aboriginal Services Minister Mark Miller said today that there are now 232 active COVID-19 cases in Kashechewan, an isolated community of approximately 2,000 people in northern Ontario.
Miller said that children and adolescents account for “most” of these infections because the vaccine is currently limited to people 12 years and older.
Kashechewan alone now accounts for a quarter of all active COVID-19 cases reported by indigenous communities across the country.
Watch: Kashechewan’s outbreak was “dramatic,” said the Minister of Indigenous Services
Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller said that most people who have recently contracted COVID-19 in Kashechewan are unvaccinated children. 1:07
Miller said that Ottawa has deployed 15 Canadian Rangers and 15 nurses to help community leaders cope with the peak.
Due to the temporary closure of the community’s only grocery store, 16 Red Cross staff are now on the scene to help distribute food. The entire community has entered a lockdown mode to prevent the virus from spreading further.
The federal government has sent tents and domes to house those who have no safe place to isolate in overcrowded communities. Miller said more federal funds have been earmarked to help communities purchase other products such as personal protective equipment (PPE).
Miller said that unlike the past outbreaks in other indigenous communities, this outbreak occurred in a community where the high vaccination rate of elderly community members has formed a kind of “firewall.”
Dr. Tom Wong, Chief Medical Officer of Public Health of the Canadian Indigenous Services Department, said that most of the new COVID-19 infections in Kashechewan have not been vaccinated; early data suggests that those who are not vaccinated are more likely to be infected with the virus. Eight times.
“Of course, the vaccine works well,” Wong said.
Miller said the community’s health care team is working “urgently” to vaccinate people aged 12 to 18 who have not been vaccinated for various reasons.
“It spreads like wildfire among unvaccinated people. This is a warning to other communities,” Miller said, predicting that Kaschevan will have a “difficult week.”
“Despite everyone’s best efforts, this is a very fragile community,” he said, citing other challenges that residents there often face, such as flooding and forced relocation.
In an interview with CBC News on Tuesday, the head of the community, Leo Friday, said that about one in ten residents had been infected with COVID-19, but he believed that the worst period of this wave may have passed.
For the first time since the latest wave of epidemics hit, the number of recovered people reported yesterday exceeded the number of new infections.
Friday said that there is no doubt that the sharp increase in cases in recent weeks is related to substandard housing conditions, adding that it is not uncommon for up to 20 people to live in a house.
“This is an overcrowded problem,” the chief said on Friday. “We started with one case, then three, and suddenly it jumped to 11, and then it climbed every day.
“Many people are afraid of losing our people.”
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