COVID-19 infections increase on Manitoba reserves

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This article was published 09/10/2021 (1644 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

As the spread of COVID-19 on Manitoba reserves grows, the First Nations pandemic response team has warned its resources to manage outbreaks will be slim throughout this fourth wave.

Over the past week, 38 per cent of new infections in Manitoba were reported among First Nations people, and the majority of cases involved people who live on reserves, said Dr. Marcia Anderson.

“Our numbers are clearly on the rise, not just in the province but specifically in Manitoba First Nations as well,” Anderson said.

Rapid response teams have been deployed to two communities in recent weeks to assist with testing and outbreak management; meanwhile the five-day test positivity for First Nations was at 8.4 per cent on reserve, and 5.2 per cent off reserve, Anderson said.

The provincial average was 3.4 per cent as of Friday.

On Thursday, an outbreak was declared on the remote community of Mathias Colomb Cree Nation — about 700 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg — by provincial public health officials in co-ordination with the chief and council.

The province said the community of more than 2,200 has gone into lockdown. Public gatherings are prohibited and residents are required to stay home or wear a mask when outside of their home.

Canadian Forces were deployed to the community, also known as Pukatawagan, last March to respond to an outbreak involving more than 100 residents.

Currently, the district has 90 active cases with 50.6 per cent of eligible residents fully vaccinated, provincial data show.

Requests for an interview with Chief Lorna Bighetty went unreturned on Friday.

Melanie MacKinnon, clinical lead for the pandemic response team, said community leaders need to be aware the team will not be able to deploy support to First Nations as it did during previous viral surges.

Many of the health-care workers whom the pandemic response team relied on have returned to their regular roles and are not available to respond to community outbreaks, MacKinnon said. Likewise, local health-care staff have returned to providing services and programming that was paused earlier in the pandemic.

“So coming into this fourth wave, we want to be really clear and transparent with our communities that we don’t have the same access to that workforce,” MacKinnon said.

“We’re revamping and redesigning the concept of rapid-response team to ensure that we have some services or some surge support to help the community, but that might look very different, whether it be smaller teams, whether it be shorter deployments, or whether there are different thresholds for consideration with respect to outbreak management.”

MacKinnon urged people living on reserve to get vaccinated against COVID-19 as soon as possible. There are 27,500 on-reserve residents eligible for immunization who still require a first or second dose, and 15,000 of them are between 12 and 29 years of age, the pandemic response team reported.

“We have to do our part to support our local health workforces. They are fairly precarious and it doesn’t take much for them to become overwhelmed or uncomfortable,” MacKinnon said.

The province said 81.7 per cent of eligible people living on Manitoba’s 63 First Nations have been fully vaccinated.

danielle.dasilva@freepress.mb.ca