Via Nunatsiaq News: COVID-19 outbreak declared in Iqaluit. Excerpt:
Iqaluit is experiencing a COVID-19 outbreak, the Government of Nunavut announced Friday.
The announcement was made during a news conference on Friday morning, after 12 new cases were reported in the community overnight, bringing the total number of infections to 13.
“It has been declared an outbreak as it involves multiple households and we have not determined the source of infection at this time,” said Dr. Michael Patterson, Nunavut’s chief public health officer.
“While this is a serious situation, it is one that we can gain control of, contain and, in time, end.”
Patterson said that all of the infected residents are now isolating in their homes.
Although some, such as the initial case, are experiencing symptoms, Patterson said others are not. Symptoms include fever, cough and difficulty breathing, among others, according to a list the Health Department published.
On Thursday, less than a day after the first case was announced, the government identified the Storehouse bar and grill as a site of “potential COVID-19 exposure” and encouraged anyone who had been to the establishment since April 8 to monitor themselves for symptoms and schedule a test if they showed any.
When asked why more specific dates and times couldn’t be given for possible exposures at the Storehouse, Patterson said that on all of those nights there was at least one person, if not more, who would have been in their infectious period and providing more details would have created confusion.
Despite this, Patterson says the outbreak still does not meet the criteria for community transmission.
“The definition of community transmission is we’re having cases pop up that we can’t establish links between,” he said.
“Right now, in Iqaluit, every individual who’s had a positive result, we know where they are on that chain of transmission.”
In addition to those who have tested positive, Patterson said that, to the best of his knowledge and prior to the news conference, there were more than 70 individuals who have been identified through contact tracing.
