The resident of the Gillam/Fox Lake health district who tested positive for COVID-19 after close contact with a visitor from the Prairie Mountain health region had contact with a community member in Thompson, according to a Facebook post by Tataskweyak Cree Nation chief and council.
“An individual who resides in Gillam - Fox Lake has tested positive for COVID-19, “ reads the notice posted Aug. 24. “This individual had not visited our community however this individual did have contact with a community member in Thompson.”
The notice also says Manitoba Public Health has been in contact with those who were in close contact with the person who tested positive and they are now self-isolating and will be tested if they develop symptoms. Manitoba Public Health does not usually issue public notices about places a person with COVID-19 attended unless the person is unable to provide them with a list of close contacts or they are unable to notify those people.
The first positive test for COVID-19 in the Northern Regional Health Authority (NRHA) area since early April was reported in the Gillam/Fox Lake health district Aug. 23.
The person who tested positive was a close contact of a visitor from the Prairie Mountain health region, who travelled to the northeast Manitoba town to visit family between Aug. 12 and Aug. 21. That visitor then learned that they were a close contact of another positive coronavirus case in the Prairie Mountain region, self-isolated from their family, according to an Aug. 23 social media post by Gillam Mayor Dwayne Forman, and were tested for COVID-19 after developing symptoms. The visitor who tested positive did not visit any local businesses, according to Forman’s post.
The TCN notice said the First Nation was encouraging community members to stay home in light of the positive test in Gillam and that masks are mandatory in public spaces. TCN offices are closed to the public and businesses in the community are limiting the number of customers allowed in stores at one time. There is also a curfew of 8 p.m. for children and 10 p.m. for adults in effect.
The fact that a visitor to the Gillam area tested positive for the novel coronavirus was made public by the Fox Lake Co-ordinated Response Team in an Aug. 21 Facebook post. They received the information about the traveller during a meeting with NRHA medical officer of health Dr. Michael Isaac and Pam Smith and Catherine Spreitzer of Indigenous Services Canada. They said the traveller had not been in contact with anyone from Fox Lake Cree Nation’s Bird reserve, anyone on the Gillam urban reserve or Fox Lake members living off-reserve. They also said there were no contacts with employees of Manitoba Hydro or its Keeyask generating station and that the risk of the public having been exposed to the virus was low.
Fox Lake Cree Nation announced an immediate lockdown of the Bird reserve in response and banned visits to Deer Island until further notice.
The positive test also prompted Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak and the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs to call for the ban on non-essential travel into Northern Manitoba, which ended June 26 after having been in place for more than two months, to be reinstated.
