COVID-19 Daily News Digest – July 8, 2020
Activists call for release of detailed COVID data from Ontario jails
n all, 5,739 tests have been done on a current inmate population of 5,886, the ministry said Tuesday. Some inmates have been tested more than once.
Evidence suggests inmates in correctional facilities are at increased risk of contracting coronavirus disease. In a recent affidavit filed in Federal Court, a medical specialist warned that jails and prisons were particularly prone to the transmission of infectious diseases, in part because inmates are frequently housed in close quarters.
The pandemic of racism
Associating adivasis with coronavirus is actively giving the pandemic a racial identity. This results in the false and bigoted belief that an ethnicity is causing the outbreak. It is a lazy and convenient attempt at making sense of the pandemic. Such hostility is a reminder that indigenous communities are treated as outsiders in their own land even though they are the earliest known inhabitants to certain regions of the country.
https://www.thedailystar.net/opinion/news/the-pandemic-racism-1926557
Youth resilience to COVID-19: indigenous knowledge in Tuvalu
These shifts in the activities of young people in Tuvalu can be considered in light of the current national conversation on Tuvaluan values, which emerged during the national consultation for the rebuilding of the Tuvalu Foreign Policy. During the consultations held with youth, they reflected on the importance of Tuvaluan values, not only in terms of foreign policy but also in behaviour and actions within Tuvalu itself – in communities, different organisations, and in households. Youth strongly felt that what is portrayed in the international community should be the true reflection of what is practised back in the motherland.
Eva Putzova prioritizes healthcare, a green economy and investing in Native communities
Putzova said COVID-19 shows the urgency to retool the economy and underserved communities through the proposed Green New Deal, which focuses on moving away from fossil fuels and toward a green economy.
“Especially in this district, we have communities that have been left behind time and time again. We also need to address climate change,” she said.
https://www.nhonews.com/news/2020/jul/07/eva-putzova-prioritizes-healthcare-green-economy-a/
Karnataka start-ups launch six indigenous products to tackle Covid-19
“These products will reduce our burden of importing expensive equipment and tools in fighting this pandemic. We must take pride in the fact that we have reached this level of innovating and producing locally,” said the Deputy Chief Minister
Update on COVID-19 in Indigenous communities
On First Nations communities in provinces, as of July 6 Indigenous Services Canada is aware of:
- 324 confirmed positive cases of COVID-19
- 30 hospitalizations
- 274 recovered cases
This means that First Nations on-reserve have four times lower case rate than that of the general Canadian population, three times less fatalities, and a 30% higher recovery rate.
https://stockhouse.com/news/press-releases/2020/07/07/update-on-covid-19-in-indigenous-communities
Vancouver’s Urban Indigenous Peoples’ Advisory Committee calls for meaningful action on anti-racism
“Racism and colonialism are deeply rooted and systemic issues,” writes the committee. “The committee stands in solidarity with Black and racialized communities as we collectively grieve senseless losses amidst continued colonial violence across Turtle Island. Through the upheavals of COVID-19 and the growing anti-racist movement, there is renewed energy and urgency around calls to confront discriminatory policies, colonial mindsets and unchecked privileges that continue to disproportionately impact underserved communities.”
Brazilian court orders 20,000 gold miners removed from Yanomami Park
Federal judge Jirair Aram Meguerian made the ruling in response to an urgent request from the Federal Public Ministry (MPF), a group of independent public litigators, who have become alarmed at reports that COVID-19 is spreading among the 13,000 Yanomami.The ruling mandates that these emergency measures must be continued until the end of the epidemic — a provision likely aimed at preventing the plan from being easily sidestepped, as has happened in the past, with mine owners removing the miners, and then, as soon as the enforcers have left, sending the miners back in.
Coronavirus pandemic puts Alaska’s epidemiologists front and center
When the Indian Health Service introduced Tribal Epidemiology Centers in 1996, Alaska was one of the first service areas to open one. Now under the management of the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, the Alaska Native Epidemiology Center (or “the EpiCenter,” as it’s called for short) is one of 12 such centers nationwide. The centers’ core functions, outlined in the reauthorization of the Indian Health Care Improvement Act, include collecting data and making targeted recommendations about public health issues that affect Indigenous people in each service area. In Alaska, that means working with partners including the State of Alaska and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Arctic Investigations Program to address infectious illnesses like COVID-19 as well as non-infectious diseases such as cancer and substance abuse.
A Day in the Life of a Doctor Fighting Coronavirus on the Navajo Nation
“We’re a very matriarchal society,” Dr. Tom tells SELF. “It always comes back to family and community. Strong clanship binds us together. And the land is where we were created. It’s very spiritual for me. Medicine can be very patriarchal…. It’s not a partnership. I didn’t grow up with another nurse or doctor who looked like me or who spoke Navajo. I wanted to change that.” Here Dr. Tom tells us what a fairly typical day in her life looks like right now—if there is such a thing during this pandemic.https://www.self.com/story/doctor-navajo-nation-coronavirus
A green COVID-19 recovery: how Canada can chart a sustainable path forward for the economy
“It’s about really seizing on a huge swath of opportunities to create a healthier, a fair, a resilient and a competitive Canada,” said Isabelle Turcotte, the director of federal policy at the Pembina Institute, which endorsed the report. “These investments are going to define the wellbeing and the economic strength of Canada in that decarbonizing global market.”
60+ Environmental Justice Advocates and Groups Issue Coronavirus Call to Action Demanding End to ‘Sacrifice Zones’
“Deconstruction of historic and ongoing injustices of this magnitude requires a paradigm shift in how we approach land use, pollution, health, and housing,” the letter says. “It will require not only the cessation of the disproportionate allocation of burdens that perpetuate inequities, but indeed also the reverse; it will require the intentional re-allocation of benefits to underserved communities, and the intentional distribution of burdens on a fairer basis to communities that currently shoulder fewer burdens.”