Locals self isolating after second case of COVID-19 found in Southend

One week ago the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations (FSIN) held a press conference to call for more to be done to protect the province’s remote and vulnerable northern communities.

At that press conference, FSIN Vice-Chief Heather Bear said it would be “disastrous” if the virus made its way to one of these vulnerable communities.

The next day their concerns became a reality when a nurse tested positive in a presumptive case of COVID-19 in Southend, located on the southern edge of Reindeer Lake.

The nurse, who had recently travelled to Germany and Nigeria was exhibiting symptoms but had gone to work for part of a day and came into contact with multiple patients and co-workers.

“The current state of the situation in Southend is that the health care worker is in isolation. Of course she is the one that has the presumptive positive case of COVID-19 and all of the other nurses that were working in close proximity to her are in isolation as well,” said Peter Beatty, Chief of Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation (PBCN).

“I believe she was only there for half a day and had four patients. So we have nine people in isolation in Southend that are being constantly monitored by our health staff. We have sent in extra health care workers to take care of any serious emergencies that may arise but we are monitoring that situation very closely every day.”

Beatty described the situation in South End as a “huge issue” and said since that first case has been found they have ramped up their prevention measures and are encouraging everyone to follow all the protocols that are out there.

These extra measures taken by PBCN have created a scene in Southend that many who live there have never seen before.

“Everybody is inside their homes,” said janitor and security guard at Southend Health Centre, Scott Cook, before taking a long pause and drawing in a deep breath to finish his thought.

“It’s like a ghost town out there.”

On Thursday, test results came back for those who were in contact with the nurse that tested positive. Only one more presumptive positive case was found which is a good news for the town but they aren’t out of the woods just yet.

“We are breathing a sigh of relief somewhat but—what was the phrase I heard this morning—eventually the horse gets out of the barn. Hopefully that doesn’t happen,” said Chief Beatty.

“So hopefully we can contain it there. We are doing the best we can with the resources that we have. Of course there was five nurses there, they were all quarantined so that complement of nurses are all out of commission.”

According to Beatty, the town has brought in three more nurses to cover their health clinic until the quarantined nurses can go back to work. Beatty also says they have shifted to just dealing with any serious emergency cases that arise and have done away with the regular traffic for the time being.