Manitoba’s premier says a Manitoba First Nation is “making a mistake” when it comes to an easing of COVID-19 restrictions for off-reserve members to come home for the holidays.
Peguis First Nation, which went into lockdown mode over a month before the rest of Manitoba, is allowing for intermittent “relaxed lockdown” days over the holiday season, which means off-reserve members will be able to visit family — with some restrictions.
Between Dec. 23 and Jan. 1, extended family and students only will be able to visit the community, as long as they pre-register before the period begins and follow community safety restrictions, which include a nightly curfew and contact tracing.
Anyone not following restrictions will be removed from the community.
Peguis Chief Glenn Hudson told 680 CJOB that the community only has three active cases in the community, and attributes the low numbers to the severe restrictions.
“We’ve brought it right down in the last three weeks. It’s been stabilized at that level,” said Hudson.
“We’re allowing our students to return back home and our extended family — some of the families that haven’t been home since March.”
Hudson said anyone returning to Peguis will be restricted to a single residence — which will then go under a four-day quarantine — as well as stringent testing before they’re even allowed in the community at all.
“We feel these steps are even above the restrictions that are in place within the province of Manitoba,” he said.
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“Whether you come from Saskatchewan or Alberta or B.C. or northwestern Ontatrio, there is nobody taking your registration, nobody monitoring where you’re going or certainly no one identifying the house where you’re going to.
“We want to keep our community safe, so we feel these measures are going to do that for us.”
As Peguis First Nation’s reserve is on federal land, it doesn’t fall under the province of Manitoba’s jurisdiction.
The province, however, doesn’t agree that Peguis’s plan is a prudent one.
Premier Brian Pallister said Tuesday he knows Hudson is a good man with the right intentions, but that he’s making a mistake.
“This will endanger people in his community, over half of whom live elsewhere, who will travel home and travel back, potentially taking COVID or bringing it back with them,” said Pallister.
“When we travel, we expose ourselves to greater risks and we expose those around us to greater risks. And this is a massive mistake.
“COVID does not discriminate. Neither should we. And we’re not going to have two sets of rules around who gets to have Christmas and how it’s celebrated this year, because we’re all doing our part to protect one another. We’re all in this together.”
Dr. Jazz Atwal, acting deputy chief provincial public health officer, told media Tuesday that the province has not changed its messaging about staying home and physically distancing, even during the holidays.
“The message is clear for all Manitobans. We want people to stay at home. We want people to physically distance.
“We know what happens when people get together. We know what happens with events or gatherings or having people over. We know how superspreader events start.
“We know that this virus likes interactions, and for every interaction that a person has, if you put a multiple on that, that risk increases. It can put communities at risk, it can put regions at risk, it can put the province at risk.”
Questions about COVID-19? Here are some things you need to know:
Symptoms can include fever, cough and difficulty breathing — very similar to a cold or flu. Some people can develop a more severe illness. People most at risk of this include older adults and people with severe chronic medical conditions like heart, lung or kidney disease. If you develop symptoms, contact public health authorities.
To prevent the virus from spreading, experts recommend frequent handwashing and coughing into your sleeve. They also recommend minimizing contact with others, staying home as much as possible and maintaining a distance of two metres from other people if you go out. In situations where you can’t keep a safe distance from others, public health officials recommend the use of a non-medical face mask or covering to prevent spreading the respiratory droplets that can carry the virus. In some provinces and municipalities across the country, masks or face coverings are now mandatory in indoor public spaces.
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