Public Service Announcement – December 6, 2021

News Type: 
Past COVID-19 Advisories

YELLOWKNIFE December 6, 2021 – The Tuktoyaktuk COVID-19 Restrictions Public Health Order was not extended and expired last night at 11:59PM. Residents in the community that are currently required to isolate or self-isolate for any reason must continue to do so until their isolation period ends or they have been advised by their health care provider that they are no longer required to isolate. 

Thank you to the residents of Tuktoyaktuk for doing your part to bring the outbreak in your community under control and more importantly supporting one another during a these challenging few weeks.

NWT COVID-19 Dashboard

As additional age cohorts have been added to the vaccination eligibility the NWT COVID-19 Dashboard has been updated to reflect the new ages eligible for the vaccination. The dashboard will be updated and the default setting will be vaccination coverage for NWT residents 5+. The 12+ and 18+ options will remain on the dashboard and residents can toggle between them to see the available vaccination coverage data for the different eligible age groups.

The Office of the Chief Public Health Officer (OCPHO) is following the advice that children wait eight (8) weeks between the first and second dose of the vaccine to maximize the effectiveness of the two doses. Under the default setting (5+) there will be a decrease in the percentage of fully vaccinated residents until the end of January as that is the earliest date that children will be eligible for the second dose of the vaccine.

Patient Privacy and Testing

The OCPHO would like to remind residents that patient privacy and confidentiality is protected by law in the NWT. Health care professionals in our communities provide testing and other services in a non-judgmental manner with the health of the patient the primary focus.

Regardless of your actions and choices: whether or not you have travelled, have been tested before, are fully, partially or unvaccinated if you are feeling sick or unwell, please contact your local health care centre, or public health, to arrange for testing.

Testing allows local public health teams to undertake contact tracing that can help protect your family, friends and community members. It is one of the tools used by our health care teams to try to stay one step ahead of COVID-19 and avoid outbreaks and community interruptions, like restrictive public health orders, wherever possible. 

Attribution

All commentary is attributable to Dr. Kami Kandola, Chief Public Health Officer for the Northwest Territories.

Relevant links

Media Contact

Richard Makohoniuk
Manager, COVID Communications
COVID-19 Coordinating Secretariat
Department of Health and Social Services
Government of the Northwest Territories
richard_makohoniuk@gov.nt.ca