Michael Patterson, Nunavut's Chief Public Health Officer.Emma Tranter/The Canadian Press
In the Nunavut hamlet of Rankin Inlet, a swift-spreading COVID-19 outbreak has led Cathy Towtongie and her neighbours to start a new practice they hope doesn’t last: locking their doors.
“Inuit normally don’t lock their doors,” Ms. Towtongie, a former member of Nunavut’s legislature, explained. “But we have been locking our doors because the spread is so shockingly fast. We heard it was one [case] in December. Now it’s 45. We are on total lockdown.”
Rankin Inlet, a community of about 3,000 people north of Churchill, Man., is one of 14 fly-in communities in Nunavut grappling with cases of COVID-19 believed to be caused by Omicron, a variant of the coronavirus that is spreading through the territory like no variant has before.
The Arctic outbreaks highlight how Omicron is finding its way into every corner of Canada. Confirmed or presumptive positives have turned up in places as remote as Pond Inlet, located on the northern tip of Baffin Island; Sanikiluaq, the only community on the Belcher Islands in Hudson Bay; and Whale Cove, a hamlet of about 300 people.
“We have never had this many cases of COVID-19 in our territory,” Nunavut Premier P.J. Akeeagok told a news conference Thursday. “Most of us know a few families who are grappling with the strain of isolation.”
Nunavut had 244 known active cases as of Thursday, enough to convince Michael Patterson, the territory’s Chief Public Health Officer, to follow other jurisdictions in rationing confirmatory lab tests for the virus.
Twelve Nunavut communities have confirmed positive cases and two have at least one presumed positive caught by a rapid test. Dr. Patterson said the bulk were Omicron.
The true tally of cases in Nunavut is almost certainly higher. Joe Savikataaq, Jr., the mayor of Arviat, said Thursday that his community’s total – 48 – hasn’t been updated in days because blizzards were preventing planes from transporting samples to Rankin Inlet for testing.
Arviat, located halfway between Churchill and Rankin, has the second-largest outbreak in the territory after the capital, Iqaluit. It was the hardest-hit community in Nunavut earlier in the pandemic.
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Nunavut has been in lockdown since December, meaning social gatherings were banned during the Christmas holidays, normally a period of communal celebration during the darkest stretch of the Arctic winter. Indoor dining, libraries, gyms, arenas and churches are also closed.
“There were not really gifts passed about or visits with families,” said Rachel Qitsualik-Tinsley, the executive director of Pairijiit Tigummiaqtikkut, an elder’s society in Iqaluit. “No dances, no feasts, no church services. So it was all really different. In the communities, it was difficult for people.”
However, Ms. Qitsualik-Tinsley said the Inuit elders she knows, having survived harsh winters and potential starvation on the land in their youth, are coping well with the lockdown.
As Omicron gains a toehold in more Nunavut communities, stopping its spread could be difficult because places to isolate are in notoriously short supply.
“The worry is overcrowding in houses,” Ms. Towtongie said. “Like, a two-bedroom house will have 13 people. And if [the outbreak] continues and continues, food security will become an issue.”
Dr. Patterson said Nunavut residents who develop symptoms while living with someone who is COVID-positive should assume they are infected and isolate, rather than seeking a test. More rapid antigen tests will be distributed in Nunavut soon, including at some airports, he added.
Dr. Patterson said the territory had to cut back on the number of gold-standard lab tests it processes to free up staff to run routine diagnostics tests for cardiac conditions, diabetes, tuberculosis and other illnesses.
“Something had to give,” he said.
A shortage of lab staff to process tests in Iqaluit is just one way the territory’s underresourced health care system is struggling to keep up with the latest outbreaks.
Francois de Wet, Nunavut’s territorial chief of staff and the chief of staff of Qikiqtani General, the territory’s only hospital, said five of Iqaluit’s eight lab technicians resigned in November and December, leaving the lab unusually short. One more technician has since been hired, he added.
Qikiqtani General has so far not been hobbled by COVID-related staff absences the way hospitals in other parts of the country have, Dr. de Wet said. Some doctors and nurses from the South haven’t been able to come to Nunavut as planned because of positive tests.
Dr. Patterson told the news conference that six Nunavut residents had been admitted to hospital for COVID-19 during this wave. Dr. de Wet said in an interview that all had been transferred to hospitals in the South for care.
For now, the bigger staffing challenge for all sectors in Nunavut is a lack of child care for workers. Schools are closed until at least Jan. 17 and some daycare centres have decided to shut down temporarily.
The Premier issued a “special plea” to daycares to reopen. “Our health care workers, store employees, water and waste management workers must go above and beyond to help our territory during the severe wave of COVID-19,” Mr. Akeeagok said. “Many of these critical services are now close to the breaking point. Staff are exhausted balancing work as well as child care.”
For Iqaluit, the COVID-19 outbreak that began in the first week of December came toward the end of a two-month water crisis. Residents were forbidden to drink from their taps for two months after an underground fuel spill contaminated a tank at the city’s water treatment plant.
“It’s the North. We go from crisis to crisis,” Dr. de Wet said. “People up here are resilient. If you look at the Inuit societal values – thinking outside of the box, working together, getting consensus, being innovative – it really serves us well in these kind of situations.”
In Rankin Inlet, Ms. Towtongie, who is also the wife of Mayor Harry Towtongie, said the community is finding creative ways to ride out the lockdown. Residents rang in the new year with a safe vehicle parade and a fireworks show, held a day late because of wild winds on Jan. 1.
Facebook and the local Inuktitut radio station have also been lifelines, she added. People try to get outside for walks and snowmobile rides, including up to an elders cabin outside the community that serves as a scenic lookout.
“Everyone is following the public-health rules,” Ms. Towtongie said. “In Rankin, we are a close-knit family. If someone dies, we’ll know it right away and know who it is and that hurts.”
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