By Cheryl Jahn

First Nations COVID

First Nations Health Authority releases the numbers

Jun 26, 2020 | 4:04 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – The First Nations Health Authority has released its findings on the impacts of CVID-19 on the province’s First Nations communities.

Of the 5,434 who were tested, only 86 tested positive for the virus and only 42 of those cases were discovered in individuals living on reserve. The FNHA’s Acting Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Shannon McDonald hailed those numbers as good news and will lay the foundation for continued measures to reduce contact.

But the province has entered Phase Three of the Restart Plan, which opens up the idea of travel within BC. For many First Nations communities in this region, a major highway either runs adjacent to or through a First Nations community and that may pose a challenge.

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“The more remote communities, that might be possible because if you have one road in, you can control that entryway. But other places that are next to urban areas might be a challenge,” says Terry Teegee, Regional Chief of the Assembly of First Nations.

He says many chiefs of the rural and remote communities are very concerned because they simply don’t have the health care infrastructure to deal with an outbreak..

“I think COVID-19 highlighted a lot of failing infrastructure, programs or resources for First Nations communities. It really highlighted what is needed in those communities.”

He says those communities have been asking to that kind of infrastructure well before COVID and it’s unfortunate it takes a pandemic to draw attention to those deficits.