24 Nunavut residents had 'low risk' contact with guard with COVID-19 at Ottawa isolation hub

Several Nunavut residents have been identified as having "low risk" contact with the security guard that tested positive for COVID-19 while working at an Ottawa hotel where Nunavut residents are isolating. 

Nunavummiut are required to stay at an isolation hotel for two weeks before returning to the territory after any travel in the South. 

Nunavut's Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Michael Patterson said at a news conference Thursday that contact tracing is complete and all contacts with the guard were identified. 

All but two of the 24 people have been contacted by public health workers. All are in Nunavut's Qikiqtaaluk region, none are still at the isolation hubs.

Low risk contact means there was no significant interaction between the guard and those individuals, according to Patterson. Those people can still attend most work, but are to continue physical distancing and regular hand washing. 

They are not required to self isolate unless they present with symptoms, at which point the government would require them to isolate. 

Initially the government said the guard was contagious over four shifts, but that changed Thursday to just Aug. 18 and 19. 

Those who were in isolation on those days and were supposed to fly back to Nunavut on Thursday have had their trips delayed until Sunday. Patterson said this delay will not cause a waiting list to get into isolation in Ottawa. The Sunday flight was an added travel day to make up for the backlog. 

As the number of people identified as contacts is low — less than five in some communities — the government of Nunavut said it will not be naming which communities the 24 people live in, to avoid stigma and shaming for the individuals. 

Patterson said there is no evidence that anyone in contact with the guard is "definitely a threat" to any community's health. If a case of COVID-19 is confirmed, Patterson said the community will be named, but unless that happens, the communities will not be named.

Guards expected to wear masks

Nunavummiut who stayed in isolation during that time, but did not have contact with the guard, are asked to self-monitor for symptoms of COVID-19 and call the government hotline if they begin having symptoms like a cough. 

Security guards at the hubs are expected to wear masks while at work. Patterson says those protocols were reviewed with the security contractor just before the dates in question, which he says means it's likely the guard was wearing a mask.

The highest risk of infection between someone in the early stages of infection, like the guard, and someone else is if the two were within six feet, without wearing a mask, and stayed there for at least 10 minutes. 

Sharing glasses, utensils, cigarettes, as well as behaviours like coughing and hugging increase the risk of transmission even more, Patterson said.

The government knows the duty rotation of the guard, so was able to determine who might have been in contact with them. 

Patterson does not recommend schools or restaurants close or planned community activities be cancelled because of this case, however he says this is a good opportunity to re-up commitments to hand washing and physical distancing. 

Teachers are not at any more risk than any other group that has travelled, Patterson said. "Several thousand people have gone through it, and for the most part done it safely."

"We have to keep in mind that this is low risk, the odds are most — if not all — of these people will not develop COVID-19," Patterson said. "If we shut down schools and workplaces for every incident like this moving forward, we are going to do serious harm to our children, and those harms especially for children outweigh the benefit of being so protective." 

However if a parent knows their child has medical factors that make them high risk, then they could consider keeping their child home, but Patterson says the advice for the general public is that it's safe to go to school.

If a case does appear in Nunavut, Patterson says — unlike at the beginning of the pandemic where a territory-wide shutdown made sense — with better contact tracing available, more focused restrictions could be put in place. 

Miss the live press conference? Watch it here:

Hubs to end when Nunavut has adequate testing capacity 

The southern isolation hubs are not meant to last through the entirety of the pandemic, but until Nunavut has adequate testing capacity in the territory, Patterson said. 

Hubs for construction workers from the South are run by the Department of Community and Government Services; the additional Winnipeg hub for medical travellers is run by the Department of Health; but the Qikiqtaaluk Corporation runs most of the hubs, with support from Community and Government Services. 

There are no dates for closing the hubs yet. 

The BioFire testing machine in Iqaluit is expected to be up and running by the first week of September, Patterson said. He did not have a timeline for when the BioFire would be working in Rankin Inlet.

"BioFire is our best option," Patterson said. The manufacturer took a while to make the modifications for it to be workable in Nunavut and release them to the Canadian market. 

Three testing devices are workable in Nunavut's remote communities: one is the Spartan, which is not yet approved for use, one is the BioFire, and the third is the GeneXpert machines. 

The GeneXpert machines are functional in Iqaluit and Rankin Inlet, but there is a global shortage of the cartridges that allow the machine to test for COVID-19. 

Nunavut has enough cartridges to get though "a couple medium-sized outbreaks," Patterson said. 

There have been no cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Nunavut. The government is monitoring 314 people for symptoms and 2,152 people had been investigated as of Aug. 24. 

As of Aug. 9, more than one-third of the 3,200 residents that have quarantined in government-approved hotels have stayed in Ottawa. As of the same date, the quarantine hotels had cost the government of Nunavut nearly $21 million. 

A public health emergency remains in place and the government of Nunavut is still advising against non-essential travel.