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The number of Covid-19 cases is growing in most of Canada, but one region, Nunavut, a northern territory, is a rare place in North America that can be said to be free of coronavirus.
Last year in March, when borders around the world were closed as coronavirus infections rose, Nunavut officials decided they couldn’t take chances. Therefore, they have instituted some of the strictest travel regulations in Canada, almost completely prohibiting access to people outside the community, according to BBC News.
Residents returning home from the south must first spend two weeks in organized “isolation centers” in hotels in the cities of Winnipeg, Yellowknife, Ottawa or Edmonton, at the expense of the Nunavut government. Security guards monitor all hotels and nurses monitor the health of the isolated. To date, more than 7,000 Nunavut residents have passed through these centers before returning home.
It was complicated because many people were caught violating the isolation rule, so the period was extended for them and there were complaints about accommodation and food conditions. But as the number of cases has skyrocketed across Canada, the official number in Nunavut remains zero.
Drastic measures have been taken in the region due to the population’s vulnerability to Covid-19, given the unique challenges in the Arctic, says Nunavut Director General of Public Health Dr. Michael Patterson.
About 36,000 people live in Nunavut, which borders the Arctic Ocean to the north, in 25 communities spread over two million kilometers, an area almost 10 times the size of Romania.
The distances between communities are enormous, and “natural isolation” is probably part of the reason for the lack of cases. In some communities, access is only possible by air.
In late September, there was an outbreak of workers coming from the south to a distant gold mine, located 160 km from the Arctic Circle, but these cases are now considered infections in the miners’ places of origin, and the number of cases in the territory remained null.
There was no risk of the infection spreading to the community because he had not contacted her for months.
Dr. Michael Patterson says that despite the lack of cases, there are measures in the territory for social distance, to limit public gatherings, and the mask is mandatory in certain situations.
Canada has managed to handle the pandemic much better than the United States, which borders the south, after imposing rather severe restrictions that have been in place for several months. As of the end of last week, Canada recorded 191,732 cases nationwide and 9,699 deaths.
Publisher: DC
