There is one new COVID-19 case and one new probable COVID-19 case connected to the N.J Macpherson cluster.
The news was tweeted out by NWT’s Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Kami Kandola, because there are no new public exposure notices, so the GNWT didn’t issue a daily update.
This brings the total number of active COVID-19 cases in NWT residents to 49.
The number of new cases and exposure risks has slowed down in recent days, after the N.J. Macpherson outbreak was initially declared on May 2.
All schools in Yellowknife were closed later that day, and mandatory mask rules indoors in the City of Yellowknife, and Ndilo and Dettah were introduced.
In a press conference on Friday, NWT’s Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Kami Kandola said almost all of the COVID-19 cases were connected directly to contacts who had been exposed at N.J. Macpherson, with few connected to the long list of exposure risk locations throughout town.
Kandola added the initial case that caused the outbreak at N.J. Macpherson may have had exposure to an existing case in the territory, and is not connected to travel outside the territory.
Kandola declined to provide more details.
Kandola reiterated the point she made in a press conference on Monday, saying that Yellowknife had not seen “community transmission” yet, but there was still potential for it to happen.
Kandola had said on Monday that she did not expect the outbreak would last long.
There was no end date for when the mandatory mask rules would be lifted, but it will be two weeks since some of the exposure risks issued by the OCHPO were exposed to the virus.
Usually after 14-days, an exposure risk expires.
