COVID-19 Daily News Digest – May 8, 2020
In the Amazon, an indigenous nurse volunteers in coronavirus fight
Ambulances regularly refuse to pick up the seriously ill because there is no public health clinic nearby.
As the coronavirus pandemic has begun spreading across Brazil, indigenous people who live in and around cities have been caught in a dangerous limbo. The country’s indigenous health service, Sesai, focuses its resources on those living on tribal reservations.
Southwest Ontario Aboriginal Health Access Centre brings COVID-19 testing to select southwestern First Nations
SOAHAC is also working with Aamjiwnaang First Nation to train personnel to go into homes to administer tests.
“That’s the way they want to do it, and we’re just getting ready so we can go in,” Martin says.
With COVID-19 lockdown in place, ceremonies are still possible
“We can go out on the land by ourselves, we can take our pipes or our drums or whatever sacred object you have and you can fast yourself for four days or two days or one day.
“Just being out on the land by yourself and getting in touch with that great spirit, that’s the most important thing.”
First Nation puzzled why it’s getting medical tents
Bureaucrats won’t say how they decided this or how much they spent, citing national security during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Paternalism is evident in the way that this process has been carried out,” said Chief Lorna Bighetty of Mathias Colomb Cree Nation.
Her community, known as Pukatawagan, got a strange phone call in mid-April from a company planning to bid on a federal contract to provide medical tents.
“It is deeply concerning that the federal government is not listening to First Nations about what they need when it comes to COVID-19, and are instead sending in materials that they didn’t ask for,” said the region’s NDP MP Niki Ashton.
Project Pandemic: Reporting on COVID-19 in Canada
Project Pandemic is a collaborative mapping effort mobilizing journalists across the country. It’s led by the Institute for Investigative Journalism at Montreal’s Concordia University and employs reporters from journalism schools across Canada along with traditional news media organizations such as CTV News. The goal is to collect data about the coronavirus pandemic and to use mapping and other analysis tools to allow a clearer picture of where the COVID-19 disease has spread and to analyze the impact on Canadians
https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/project-pandemic
Alberta First Nations worried by suspension of oilsands environmental monitoring
In a series of decisions released earlier this week, the regulator relieved four oilsands major companies of the responsibility to meet environmental monitoring conditions in their licences to operate.
Other exemptions include most monitoring of ground and surface water, unless it enters the environment. Almost all wildlife and bird monitoring, often done by remote cameras, is suspended, as is testing for leaks of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.
Sask Information Commissioner joins chorus pressing government to release COVID-19 data
“We’re in the middle of a pandemic,” Ron Kruzeniski said in an interview Thursday. “We have the public with lots of concerns and I think it’s important for decision makers to build trust. You build trust by providing more information.”
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/government-pressed-to-releae-covid-data-1.5558700
Committee aims to end Island’s ‘divisive politics’ of COVID-19, bring co-ordinated response
“As leaders, we are all responsible to put aside our political differences and to work collaboratively to come up with solutions that protect the people on the Island,” Corbiere said. “There is no room for the divisive politics that are currently taking place.”
COVID-19 numbers from provincial, First Nations data sharing agreement won’t be made public without consent
The data will be shared with First Nations leadership in the province to help those governments fight the spread of the disease, said Dr. Brent Roussin, Manitoba’s chief provincial public health officer.
“This information sharing agreement is the first of its kind in Canada, and respects the principles of data ownership, control, access and possession and First Nations data sovereignty,” Roussin said in a news release Tuesday
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/manitoba-first-nations-data-covid-19-1.5560706
Food security fears after COVID-19 case closes La Loche, Sask., grocery store
One of the two grocery stores in La Loche, Sask., has shut temporarily after one of its employees tested positive for COVID-19, according to an executive at the North West Company.
The grocery store’s closure has triggered concerns about food security and a possible shortage of cleaning supplies in the community, which is the centre of a COVID-19 outbreak in northern Saskatchewan.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/laloche-covid19-northern-grocery-1.5560189
Lessons learned during H1N1 guide Ottawa’s response to COVID-19 in First Nations
The federal government is looking to hire paramedics who can fly up to remote First Nations in case there’s a surge of COVID-19 cases — evidence, officials say, of a different approach to Indigenous health care than during the H1N1 outbreak.
It’s “a proactive move in terms of making sure that we’ve got surge capacity available for Indigenous communities, should the capacity of the health professionals on the ground be surpassed,” said Robin Buckland.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/h1n1-lesson-covid-19-response-first-nations-1.5559948
This Indigenous nurse has volunteered to help 700 families in the Amazon with COVID-19 care
Vanderlecia Ortega dos Santos, or Vanda to her neighbors, has volunteered to provide the only frontline care protecting her indigenous community of 700 families from the COVID-19 outbreak ravaging the Brazilian city of Manaus. Ambulances regularly refuse to pick up the seriously ill because there is no public health clinic nearby.
Indigenous families in Brazil’s Amazon face Covid-19 pandemic with lack of access to medical care
Indigenous communities are extra vulnerable to the Covid-19 outbreak because of the lack of access to health care services. In the Brazilian Amazon, an indigenous nurse, Vanderlecia Ortega dos Santos decided to volunteer as a frontline medical worker to provide care for her community of over 700 families living with the risk of catching the deadly coronavirus.
Far north passes Saskatoon region for most Saskatchewan COVID-19 cases.
“And there we do know that most of the cases are in younger adults, youth and younger adults, and that has been the chain of transmission,” Shahab told reporters at the province’s daily pandemic briefing.
Democracy Now! — Trump can’t mask his message to Indian country: Live and let die
There was no laughter back on the Navajo reservation. “Today, the federal government announced that they intend to release a portion of funds appropriated by Congress over one month ago to tribes to help fight COVID-19, but I’ll believe it when I see it,” President Jonathan Nez, who himself tested positive for the virus, replied. ”We couldn’t sit around and wait for those dollars, so we’ve had boots on the ground in nearly 20 communities giving out food, water, firewood, protective masks and other supplies … We lost many of our beloved relatives and family members to this virus, but our teachings also tell us to move forward. We will and we are.”
COVID-19 and Band Council decisions: Exercising your powers during the pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic has created a situation where Band Councils might need to make important decisions quickly. In those circumstances, Band Councils must ensure that they continue to exercise their powers in accordance with the Act and the applicable Regulations. This means ensuring that all decisions are made with the consent of a majority of the Band Council at a meeting duly convened.
https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=f0ccd850-2d28-42ac-9b0e-c21ce6b3db92
Amazon’s Indigenous Tribes Launch International Campaign Against Covid-19
“COICA has called on governments, cooperation agencies, international organizations, foundations and citizens to donate to the Amazon Emergency Fund. This fund has been created with the aim of raising and channeling resources to indigenous communities and grassroots organizations who . . .
At least 18 First Nations in northeastern Ontario close borders to keep outsiders and COVID-19 away
“It’s really weird talking about it as a border. But it is our home, our territory, we want to protect it and it does have quote unquote ‘borders,'” says Bissaillion.
“I’m sure it’s weird for some Canadians to hear ‘First Nations set up their borders’ like ‘What? I thought we were in Canada.”
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/first-nations-borders-checkpoints-law-1.5557691