Navajo Nation reports 175 new COVID-19 cases, 10 new deaths
December 19, 2020 GMT
WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. (AP) Navajo Nation health officials on Friday reported 175 new COVID-19 cases and 10 new virus-related deaths.
In all, the tribe has reported 20,569 coronavirus cases resulting in 742 deaths since the pandemic hit the vast reservation in March.
The new statistics come as the reservation enters the latest in a string of weekend-long lockdowns designed to limit activity that can spread the virus.
Health officials said more than 186,000 people on the vast reservation that covers parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah have been tested and nearly 11,000 have recovered from COVID-199
During that same period, no schools were placed on the Closure List.
The Watchlist, maintained by the New Mexico Environment Department, includes schools and businesses with two or more Rapid Responses within 14 days. Those with four or more Rapid Responses in 14 days are placed on the Closure List and required to close and, where appropriate, return instruction to remote-only learning.
A Rapid Response is a series of interventions designed to prevent COVID-19 spread, beginning when the New Mexico Department of Health notifies a school that an employee or student has a confirmed positive case and was on campus/in the facility during the infectious period. Read the complete COVID-19 Rapid Response Watchlist here.
The Navajo Nation reported 160 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, as public health authorities continued the first round of vaccinations among the hard-hit Indigenous population in the southwestern United States.
A first shipment of roughly 3,900 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine that arrived on Monday and Tuesday was being administered to front-line healthcare workers and staff in long-term care facilities, Dr Loretta Christensen, chief medical officer of the Navajo Area Indian Health Service (NAIHS), told Al Jazeera.
“All of our major facilities in Navajo received a portion of vaccines, and all of them have been administering vaccines, with the anticipation of finishing all vaccines by this weekend,” Christensen said.
First Coronavirus Vaccine Doses Administered In Hard Hit Indigenous Communities
at 7:13 pm NPR
Health officials are administering the first doses of a coronavirus vaccine in Indigenous communities across the U.S., one of the populations most vulnerable in the pandemic.
About 68,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses will initially be distributed among the population, the Indian Health Service said last week. Doses began to arrive this week and will first be given to the elderly and health care workers. We are so happy I can t even describe it, said Dr. Dakotah Lane, medical director of the Public Health Department and a Lummi Nation member, according to the Associated Press.