Tuktoyaktuk school converted to isolation centre amid COVID-19 outbreak

Cases have continued to climb in Tuktoyaktuk, N.W.T., since an outbreak began just over a week ago. The community of about 900 people now has 99 active cases, the vast majority of the 136 cases now active in the territory. 

Grocery store Stanton Tuk is also now listed by the Office of the Chief Public Health Officer as a public exposure site, and all individuals who have visited the store since Nov. 4 are being asked to get a COVID-19 test.

Mangilaluk School, which was closed early in the community's outbreak, is being turned into an isolation centre for those diagnosed with COVID-19 to avoid them spreading it to other household members, said MLA Jackie Jacobson.

People will be spread out among the classrooms and the gym, and will be at least six feet apart. They will receive their meals in the school, he said.

The Office of the Chief Public Health Officer (OCPHO) confirmed the Inuvik Regional Emergency Management Organization (EMO) and Territorial EMO are working with the Hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk on setting up the isolation centre in the community. 

Obie David James Anikina lives in Tuktoyaktuk. He said the community had been lucky until about a week ago. That's when N.W.T. health authorities ordered a 10-day lockdown in Tuktoyaktuk on Nov. 9 to stop the spread of COVID-19 in the community. 

"Everyone was hoping or praying COVID wouldn't hit, but it hit pretty hard," said Anikina.

"I'm sure it is a wake up call for everyone … It just changes your whole life basically.

"We have no work, everything is shut down. It makes life harder in every kind of way possible." 

Outbreak prompts rethink on vaccines

Anikina said the outbreak has also shifted his own decision making around vaccines.

"I also was holding out [on getting] the vaccine, because I was afraid of it and I wanted to make sure it was good for everyone," he said.

"For personal health reasons I hadn't taken the vaccine up until four days ago when I had my first vaccine."

He said he also wanted to do his part and be safe around his nieces and nephews, and considered how not having the vaccine would affect his employment opportunities.

According to the N.W.T. government, 70 per cent of people over 12 in the hamlet are full vaccinated, and 82 per cent have had one dose of the vaccine. That puts Tuktoyaktuk behind nearby Inuvik, where 79 per cent of people are fully vaccinated. 

Anikina has a message for those like him who are holding out on getting the vaccine.

"I was afraid before, but I am OK now … I didn't want it at all before, but I think that it's safe. I think that it's OK." 

He said the only thing he experienced post-vaccination was a sore shoulder for a couple of days.

"I maybe shouldn't have waited that long, but I was afraid of getting the vaccine for health reasons," he said, "I will have my second one if I'm still well and here in December."

He hopes the severity of the situation in the community triggers others to get the shot. 

Jacobson said that's exactly what the outbreak has done. 

"Now it's in our home community, some people are getting vaccinated."

'People have to wake up and listen'

"I think people have to wake up and listen," Anikina said. "It's the only way the pandemic will leave us."

He worries that people are still associating with their families or going out after testing positive, though people have been asked to stay home regardless of test results.

Anikina hopes the isolation centre at the school makes a difference, noting some people were concerned that there would be nowhere to isolate if they test positive.

As a result of the outbreak, he said he hasn't been able to work since businesses have closed, and he's worried about putting food on his table and paying his rent. He's lonely, but says he understands why the measures are needed and he can't see his family.  

"I just have hope and prayers for each and everyone to have strong mind and good hearts. To have love in their hearts to share, because I think that's what most people need right now, and I hope it continues that people have people there for them."