SIX NATIONS — Six Nations Elected Council says that community members should continue to wear masks even if they are fully vaccinated — and are asking members to continue to practise social distancing, hand washing and mask wearing.
The announcement comes in the wake of the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention in the USA issuing new guidance that Americans who are fully vaccinated no longer need to wear masks or practise social distancing indoors or outdoors.
In a statement on May 14 the council urged community members to uphold public health guidelines that are still in place in Ontario, which remains in lockdown until June 2 to deplete infections in a third wave that saw the province’s healthcare system overwhelmed with COVID infections.
“COVID-19 public health guidelines to prevent any further spread of COVID-19 within the territory still strongly apply,” said SNGREC in a statement. “This includes staying home as much as possible, practicing social distancing, wearing a mask, frequent hand washing, avoiding large gatherings and seeking the COVID-19 vaccination when possible.”
Currently Six Nations is seeing an encouraging shift in local infection rates with just 1 active case in the community as of Tuesday afternoon and no new cases being reported since May 13.
For the first time since January — Six Nations and Ohsweken Public Health are reporting a low risk factor in it’s core monitoring indicator. Despite this, the community remains in Black Alert status in line with the rest of the province of Ontario. The provincial lockdown was originally planned to end on May 26. Premier Doug Ford announced last week it would be extended to June 2.
The community is not out of the woods yet however, There are currently 16 people on Six Nations in self-isolation.
To date there have been 525 positive COVID-19 cases on Six Nations since the beginning of the pandemic — 58 of them were identified as variants of concern identified in the last two months. Most of the positive cases, 513, have resolved. 11 people have died.
