Some Nain residents concerned about health-care staffing, as COVID-19 hits community

In the remote Labrador community of Nain, some residents are concerned about health-care staffing levels, as COVID-19 hits the town for the first time.

Jenny Oliver, a child and youth worker and a veteran organizer of community events, said the Inuit village, about 370 kilometres north of Happy Valley-Goose Bay, needs more help to fight the spread of the Omicron variant.

Both the Nunatsiavut government and Labrador-Grenfell Health have three nurses each stationed in the community.

But as COVID-19 takes a toll on health-care staff in other parts of the province, Oliver worries about what could happen if the same happened in Nain.

"My fear is that I'm going to be burying people in our community. My fear is that we're going to have to dig mass graves," Oliver said. "And my fear is that by the time anybody realizes that help should have or should be in Nain, it's going to be too late."

Oliver's worries speak to a mounting fear in a region that has a history of devastation from communicable diseases. In 1918 and 1919, a third of the Inuit population in northern Labrador died of the Spanish flu in just five months. To this day, the region still has cases of tuberculosis.

The Nunatsiavut government said there are 15 confirmed and three presumptive COVID cases in the community.

"There are a lot of people in quarantine, who feel very lonely," Oliver said. "It reminds me of the Spanish flu and its impact on our community."

Nunatsiavut president Johannes Lampe said testing has been moving smoothly and the provincial government is providing the region with supplies. He said residents have to be alert and prepared.

"We knew that eventually that COVID would come," Lampe said. "But at the same time, we have to keep calm and to try our best to follow the protocols that we have been using over the last couple of years."

Lampe said Nunatsiavut is doing what it can to support residents and has asked the provincial government for more relief.

Longer wait for test results

On Monday, Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Janice Fitzgerald said residents of the province are waiting up to 48 hours to get tested and then up to 72 hours for results. But in Labrador, the process can take a week or more. Still Fitzgerald said earlier this week that Labrador-Grenfell's public health are managing the workload.

"Labrador-Grenfell is managing with their public health capacity no doubt stretched, but they are doing an excellent job at the moment of really contacting people and getting people into isolation," Fitzgerald said Monday.

But Oliver said more resources — including nurses — are needed, especially in Nain and along the north coast. She also said more information needs to be provided to residents, especially with those who don't speak English or who don't have a phone.

"There are a lot of vulnerable people here. We have people living in larger households," Oliver said. "I question why the army isn't here. If, you know, our health care, our regional and provincial health care providers can't come up, then why not send the army?"

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