Brandon Sun By: Tyler Clarke Advertisement A toy drive for northerners has ballooned from an effort of Canadian Forces Base Shilo to something much larger. As reported last week, an initial group of 40 military members from the 2nd Battalion Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry have been deployed to Shamattawa First Nation. They’re set to help establish an alternative isolation area in a local school in order to help keep an outbreak of COVID-19 at bay. As of Sunday, there were 882 active cases of the virus in the Northern health region, which makes it the second hardest-hit region when it comes to total numbers aside from Winnipeg, where there are 3,735 active cases. However, as a portion of the population, those in the north are currently twice as likely to have COVID-19 than those in Winnipeg.