The coronavirus epidemic has reached virtually every place on Earth, but the final frontier appears to be a remote place in North America where the total number of infections is officially zero, a report said.
Authorities in Nunavut, which also has a large but sparse population in northern Canada, took swift and drastic action when the infection increased in March, a BBC report said.
Residents returning from the outlet are required, at the expense of the local government, for two weeks, in “creepy centers”, with hotel-roaming security guards in Winnipeg, Yellowknife, Ttva or Edmonton, as stated in the outlet.
To date, less than 1,000 Nunavumuts have spent time on their way home, although there have been reports that some people have broken the seclusion.
Dr. Michael Patterson, Nunavut’s chief public health officer, told the BBC the decision was “absolutely drastic” because of the potential vulnerability of the disease population and the unique challenges facing the Arctic region.
Nunavut is home to about 36,000 people in 25 communities spread over 809,000 square miles – about three times the size of Texas.
The lack of COVID-19 cases is likely to be due in part to natural isolation as those communities can only be reached by air throughout the year.
Last month, there was an outbreak with workers flying to a remote gold mine 100 miles south of the Arctic Circle, but it counted as an infection in the jurisdiction of their home, keeping the region’s case count to zero.
The BBC reports that most Nunavut communities do not have the capacity to test coronavirus locally, so have to go in and out for tests – and initially, the results can take up to a week, the BBC reports.
“You’re really, really far behind the time you can identify and respond,” Patterson said, although efforts are underway to increase testing capacity and turnaround time for the region’s results.
The field also has limited medical resources.
Patterson said the 35-bed intensive care unit at Kikikta General Hospital in the capital, Ikalit, could handle 20 coronavirus patients.
“In the event of an outbreak,“ many of the people who need treatment, or they need admission, will have to move south and so that will put another burden on our Medewack system, ”he said.
Overall, Canada has been able to control the ebb tide during the summer. As of last weekend, there were 191,732 cases and 9,699 deaths across the country.
.
