Ginoogaming First Nation – Ginoogaming First Nation (GFN) Council and Health Team today announced a third COVID-19 positive case. The community is in the process of doing contact tracing on these cases and are urging close contacts of confirmed cases to get tested. GFN Council are growing concerned with the escalation they are seeing in their community of 232 people. Currently, the community is doing intermittent COVID-19 testing and is considering mass-testing of the entire on-reserve community.
“As a Council, we believe in being open and transparent about cases that are identified in our community,” said Councillor Sheri Taylor. “We are concerned about the upward trend that is happening and will be putting in measures that we hope will curb the outbreak including mandating more stringent restrictions on the community access gate (effective 8:00 am on Friday, January 22, 2021) limiting access to residents only/essential workers and establishing a COVID-19 Isolation Centre for individuals who are unable to isolate at home. If we are diligent and put forth our best efforts—we can stop COVID-19 positive cases from growing in Ginoogaming First Nation and get through this together,” she added.
To limit further spread of COVID-19 in the community, GFN Council and Health Team are encouraging everyone to follow the stay-at-home order and follow the public health recommendations. Furthermore, they are asking no visiting of other households including close relatives like grandparents, sisters, brothers, etc. The say that the only time community members should be leaving their homes is for essential needs like grocery or doctor appointments. If community members have to go out for these essentials, masks covering the nose and mouth are required and hand washing or hand sanitizing must be done frequently.
GFN Council are announcing that—with the exception of the Health Centre which will have a few staff for essential purposes—all offices in the community will be closed including the daycare. The Community Store will be open for community members for curbside-pickup only from 2 pm- 6 pm daily. GFN Council reminds its members that, “if our members are self-isolating and have had tests come back negative, they must continue to self-isolate/stay home and monitor symptoms for the 14 days since exposure.”
