Removing masks, restrictions will prolong pandemic

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 30/08/2021 (1641 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Throughout August, the number of new cases of COVID-19 among First Nations peoples throughout B.C., Alberta and Saskatchewan have doubled almost every week.

The highest percentage rise is in Alberta, which has gone from 13 cases at the end of July to more than 150 this week — a more than tenfold increase. Saskatchewan’s numbers aren’t much better.

Alberta, of course, has been famously acting for months like the COVID-19 pandemic is under control — a decision Albertans are now regretting as thousands of new cases were reported this week and mask and quarantine restrictions are being put back into place.

Saskatchewan lifted virtually all COVID-19 restrictions in mid-July and has seen the disease steadily increase with 369 new cases reported on Saturday, more than a hundred more than from the day before.

Saskatchewan health medical officer Dr. Johnmark Opondo announced Friday that the province is “back in high COVID transmission territory.”

First Nations are clearly no different, despite fairly high vaccination rates of over 60 per cent for the first dose and 50 per cent for the second dose among on and off reserve populations in each province.

Vaccines don’t eliminate the virus but they do reduce symptoms and the risk of requiring hospitalization, especially with the new, dangerous and contagious Delta variant.

COVID-19 is making a comeback on First Nations and it’s distinctly related to provincial health decisions.

In other words, when it comes to the COVID-19 pandemic: as provinces go, so do First Nations.

Treaties and Canada’s constitution states that our primary relationships are with the Crown and the federal government; COVID-19 says otherwise.

In Manitoba, the same picture is emerging.

Over the past month, the spread of COVID-19 has gone from a radical decrease on First Nations to a complete reversal of all progress.

According to data from the Manitoba First Nations COVID-19 Pandemic Response team, one month ago new cases on First Nations dropped to just 19 on Aug. 12 — a remarkable low not seen for over a year. A week earlier, on Aug. 5, that number was 77.

This was, of course, due to the extensive work done bringing vaccines to First Nations in Manitoba. Around that time, just fewer than fifty per cent of First Nations peoples had received one dose with around forty per cent receiving the second.

On Aug. 7, the province lifted restrictions and the mandate on masks and, predictably, First Nations cases slowly increased.

This past week saw 80 new cases, with 55 on reserve and 25 off-reserve (echoing numbers from a month ago).

As it has been throughout this entire pandemic, cases on First Nations continue to make up around a quarter found in the province. This means that while in some corners of Manitoba the disease has been eliminated, it has been a constant presence for First Nations peoples.

All is not lost though. Of these new cases, twenty-two have had to be hospitalized, with seventeen requiring intensive care.

But this brings us to the scariest variable. In First Nations in the province, the delta variant is emerging.

On Friday, Sagkeeng First Nation announced 23 new cases among staff and long term care residents at the George M. Guimond Care Centre. All were the delta variant.

The outbreak at Sagkeeng represents more than half the new delta cases in Manitoba. On Friday, health officials announced 43 delta variant cases, making 986 in the province’s history.

This, despite vaccination rates in Sagkeeng being remarkably high. In Powerview/Pine Falls (which includes Sagkeeng in it’s data) 74 per cent of eligible residents have one dose and 65.5 per cent have two.

COVID-19 percolates, and due to the new delta variant it is more dangerous than ever.

There is empirical, factual proof that as vaccine rates increase, positive cases of COVID-19 (reported ones, anyway) fall.

According to federal health data, there is a direct correlation between the decrease of positive cases on First Nations and vaccine distribution.

Today, there is one-eighth of the cases on First Nations since vaccines started being distributed after Christmas (from around 5,000 to 700).

Vaccines work to control — and hopefully one day eliminate — the virus.

Nowhere is this more important than on First Nations. If this pandemic has proven anything, we know that, mostly due to poverty and historical legacies, First Nations is where COVID-19 spreads faster, harms and kills more, and percolates the longest.

By Aug. 26, nearly 55 per cent of First Nations people aged 12 and up have received their first dose (94,424 citizens) and 45 per cent have received their second (78,242). This is good, but more effort must be put into vaccinating First Nations if we are all to benefit.

If the past few weeks have shown Canada anything, removing masks and restrictions is not the path to eliminating COVID-19, it’s a way of prolonging its life.

This is true especially for First Nations, who go as everyone else goes.

 

niigaan.sinclair@freepress.mb.ca