Containment orders to be lifted in Fort Good Hope and Colville Lake on Sept. 4

The containment orders for N.W.T. communities Fort Good Hope and Colville Lake will be lifted at 11:59 p.m. on Sept. 4.

The territory put the orders in place for both on Aug. 15, as the first COVID-19 cases were identified in the Sahtu. 

Dr. Kami Kandola, the territory's chief public health officer, said they are "pretty confident" they have controlled the outbreak in the two communities. 

But, she asked territorial residents to stay vigilant. 

"That doesn't mean that next week, someone can't come from Yellowknife and go to Fort Good Hope and re-expose people who are not immunized," Kandola told reporters Wednesday during a media briefing.

"In the end, if you're not immunized, you can still get exposed and impacted by COVID-19." 

As of Tuesday, Fort Good Hope had 23 active cases of COVID-19 and 83 recoveries. Colville Lake had only four active cases, with 75 recoveries. 

Norman Wells containment order extended 

Norman Wells, N.W.T., the other Sahtu community that has seen a lot of COVID-19 cases, is not in the same situation, said Kandola. 

Their public health order will be extended until Sept. 14. 

On Tuesday, there were 26 active COVID-19 cases in Norman Wells, along with 24 recoveries. 

Leadership there started nightly patrols last week to identify individuals who are not following public health orders and report them to the RCMP, because of what they said was "an obvious … disregard of isolation orders." 

The decision to extend the Norman Wells containment order, Kandola said, is not one she made lightly. 

"My job is to measure how difficult it is for community residents, against the risk of ongoing COVID-19 transmission," she said. 

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No more restrictions needed in Yellowknife, Kandola says 

Kandola doubled down on the fact that no further restrictions will be needed in Yellowknife right now, despite the rise of cases in the capital. 

In Tuesday's update, Yellowknife had the highest number of COVID-19 cases in the territory with 43. Twenty-two other people have recovered. 

Yellowknife is what Kandola calls a "highly immunized community," where 80 per cent of the population 12 years old and over is fully immunized. She said there are pockets of unvaccinated people in the city that are at higher risk of contracting COVID-19. 

A containment order would only be necessary, she continued, if there was a risk that high case counts could overwhelm the territory's medical system. 

That was the case in the Sahtu communities, where Kandola acknowledged there were six cases resulting in hospitalization in the span of two weeks from that outbreak. 

In Yellowknife, there are no signs that the number of COVID-19 cases will overwhelm the medical system. If that becomes the case, then Kandola might consider issuing a containment order. 

One of Yellowknife's newest cases is at the North Slave Correctional Complex.

Kandola refused to say whether the positive individual was a staff member or an inmate, citing security reasons, but stressed the jail has a "rigorous" screening program, and that contact tracing is underway. 

Public health emergency to stay in place for now

The territory won't lift its public health emergency, which gives the N.W.T. authority to issue public health orders, until after children under 12 years old, or between junior kindergarten and Grade 6, can be vaccinated, Kandola said.

The public health emergency was issued for the first time on March 18, 2020, and was extended most recently on Tuesday to help the territory continue to "decisively respond to shifts in the N.W.T.'s own public health system." 

She said there is still a risk that children could spread COVID-19 to the remaining 25 per cent of N.W.T. residents who are eligible for the vaccine, but who haven't take it yet it or chose not to or are unable to take it.