N.W.T. COVID-19 contacts must now isolate 10 days regardless of vaccination status

People identified as a contact of someone who has COVID-19 by a public health official in the N.W.T. must isolate for 10 days regardless of their vaccination status.

The new public health order came into effect Wednesday at 5 p.m.

The N.W.T. government also issued nine new public exposure notices. Two are for flights and seven other ones for various locations in Yellowknife.

Unvaccinated passengers in rows seven to 16 on the Dec. 18 Air Canada AC8457 flight from Calgary to Yellowknife are required to isolate where they are, not travel, and get tested on day eight or if symptoms develop.

Vaccinated passengers in the same rows of the same flight need to self-monitor for 10 days and get tested on day four, or if symptoms develop.

The same direction is given to passengers in rows 12 to 18 on the Dec. 21 Air Canada flight AC8455 from Calgary to Yellowknife.

The seven locations across Yellowknife for which there are public exposure notices are Anytime Fitness, Black Knight, Fatburger, WalMart, Co-op, Bumper to Bumper and the Monkey Tree. The exposures happened at various times between Dec. 18 and 20.

The exposure notices state that all unvaccinated people who were at the locations during the times indicated are required to isolate immediately and contact Yellowknife Public Health to arrange for testing.

All fully vaccinated people are required to self monitor for symptoms, refrain from gatherings, avoid high risk activities and get tested four days after the exposure or if COVID-19 symptoms develop.

N.W.T. COVID-19 cases jump from 15 to 24

The N.W.T. government is reporting 24 COVID-19 cases across the territory Wednesday, compared to 15 on Tuesday.

According to the government's COVID-19 website, 19 of the cases are in the Yellowknife area and five of them are in the Beaufort Delta region.

The government did not indicate whether any of the cases were of the Omicron variant.