Tag Archives: EOC

Health, Indigenous Nations

Klahoose actions halt COVID outbreak

1 Comment

National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Quick action by a small, remote First Nation on the West Coast appears to have smothered the spread of COVID-19 in the tiny island community.

But the next big step for the Klahoose First Nation will be to maintain the gains it’s made and continue with household bubbles over the holidays, Chief Kevin Peacey said.

The Klahoose community on Cortes Island, B.C., emerged from lockdown last Tuesday after quarantine ended for all four individuals affected by the virus and no new cases were identified, Peacey said.

Continue reading Klahoose actions halt COVID outbreak →
Health

How Island Health Responds to a COVID situation

2 Comments

Part one of a series of three articles: Michelle Crosby talks about administrative matters and how Island Health responds to a COVID situation.

Cortes Island responded to the first news of the pandemic with a series of ZOOM conferences, in which various sectors of the community reported on their preparations, status and plans. The last of these meetings was held on June 9th, a day when Island Health reported there were no COVID cases anywhere on Vancouver Island. That situation has changed. According to statistics released by the BC Centre for Disease Control, there were 16 new cases in the Greater Campbell River Health Area during November. Some of these were on Cortes Island, where there had not previously been a publicly acknowledged case. While there are currently no known active cases on Cortes, there were 31 throughout North Vancouver Island yesterday and Island Health does not identify specific communities, or islands, for individual cases. The virus is still spreading. On December 10th, Cortes Island’s Regional Director, Noba Anderson, convened a ZOOM conference of several key Cortes community and Island Health leaders.

Continue reading How Island Health Responds to a COVID situation →
Health, Indigenous Nations

Update from the Klahoose Nation’s emergency checkpoint

1 Comment

National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The last thing Byron Harry imagined having to stickhandle during a COVID-19 community lockdown was a cougar leaping onto his truck.

Harry was pulling a graveyard shift at the Klahoose Nation’s emergency checkpoint, which was set up to contain a cluster of cases that had broken out in the remote community on B.C.’s Cortes Island just days before.

Continue reading Update from the Klahoose Nation’s emergency checkpoint →