Gathering restrictions, school closures, in Yellowknife area to be extended until Oct. 17

Gathering restrictionsin Yellowknife, Dettah and Ndil will be extended until Oct. 17, N.W.T. Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Kami Kandola said at a Wednesday news conference.

The current public health orderwas initially set to expireon Oct. 11.

Schools in the three communities will remain closed during that time.

"Some schools may open on Oct. 18," said Kandola, adding she will make an announcement about it next week.

But she said she needs to see adownward trend in the number of cases in the communities for her to decide to open schools again.

"I would have to see a consistent drop in active cases in Yellowknife," she said.

"It doesn't have to be to a zero active case level,but there has to be some kind of indication that we have reacheda peak and that we are consistently going in a downward trend."

And, she added,"that we have a good handle on active cases, theirisolation and their contacts."

Missed the news conference? Watch it here.

Quiet Thanksgiving ahead

The Northwest Territories is in the throes of its worst outbreak of COVID-19 yet. It reported 348 COVID-19 cases across the territory Tuesday, the most it has seen since the start of the pandemic.

Kandola said the N.W.T.'s active rate of COVID[-19] infection is 7.5 times the national average.

"We are the highest in Canada," she said, adding that the territory has not reached a peak in thecurrent wave of this outbreak.

She said the additional restrictions put in place in Behchok last Monday are there to stop the transmission of COVID-19 in the Tch region and Yellowknife, and to protect the limited capacity of the health care system.

"It will take a few days to evaluate the effectiveness of this new order," she said, adding that officials are looking at increasing enforcement capacity.

Kandola said she's hoping to see a drop in cases as the week progresses and asked all residents inBehchok, Yellowknife, Dettah and Ndilto keep their Thanksgiving celebrations within their households.

What containment order to expire

Kandola said she will not extend the containment order for What when it expires on Oct. 9, citing a substantial drop on the number of active cases in the community.

The number of active cases in What peaked at 33 on Sept. 17. On Tuesday, the community had just one active case.