Category: News

On today’s daily update from Kahnawake’s Covid-19 Task Force, Kahnawake Fire Brigade paramedic and medical instructor Tanner Phillips spoke about current protocols for the paramedics. While on shift, Phillips said paramedics must stay at work for a full 24 hours and can only leave to respond to calls. Measures put in place include changing uniforms and showering after every shift before going home.

Lloyd Phillips, the Commissioner of Public Safety, gave details on Tewatohnhisaktha’s economic plan for the community. Phillips said the plan is currently being drafted. He said there will be measures “Ensuring there are proper infection control procedures in place…for all businesses.” He also said there will be measures “…to ensure the safety of the employees and customers.”

Lisa Westaway, the Executive Director at the Kateri Memorial Hospital Center, focused on Quebec’s new directive that prevents patient transfers from hospital centers to long term care facilities if they spent longer than 24 hours at a hospital. Westaway said community members who stay at the Elder’s Lodge or have home care can still be transferred if needed. She said, however, that those people will have to follow strict precautions upon returning to the Elder’s Lodge or their homes.

Dr. Annick Gauthier, the Task Force’s Medical Advisor, addressed community concerns on how to take better precautions against the virus. Gauthier also made a point to express her disapproval of the idea of sending children back to school to increase herd immunity against Covid-19. She said, “The herd immunity in the adult population needs to be developed in the adults, not the children…Most children have a very mild and even asymptomatic infection.” She explains that in this case children don’t develop much of a virus, nor an immunity to it. She then concluded, “If you’re not producing the virus, you’re not spreading it to other people…if you’re sending the kids back to school, it’s because you think the kids are the vectors. The data does not support that.”

Kahnawake’s Covid-19 Task Force daily update today featured Corporal John D. Delormier of the Kahnawake Peacekeepers who spoke about how the Peacekeepers are handling sanitary procedures while working. Delormier said measures taken include changing into uniforms that were already sanitized upon entering the station, as well as having to clean their vehicles after each use. He also mentioned that Peacekeepers respond to calls while wearing masks and gloves and wash their hands after each interaction, among other procedures.

Lisa Westaway, the Executive Director at the Kateri Memorial Hospital Center, said a total of 187 people have been tested at the testing site for symptoms of Covid-19. Westaway said that is not a large enough sample to determine how the community is doing. She said KMHC staff will soon begin calling community members at their homes for a health check over the phone to determine whether someone should get tested. She said multiple testing sites are planned to be set up in different locations in Kahnawake.

Arnold Lazare, the former Director of Public Safety, stressed the task force’s guiding principles. Lazare said “Kahnawake is for residents only, and is only operating only on essential services. We’re doing this in an effort to protect our vulnerable people…By the end of the month, it is the intention of the Task Force to reevaluate all of the directives.”

About 200 elderly patients in Kahnawake are now receiving homecare visits from nurses, according to the director of the Kateri Memorial Hospital Center (KMHC). 

In a briefing on Saturday, KMHC director Lisa Westaway said nurses are conducting pre-screening for patients over the phone and providing blood tests and other services at home.

“What we’re trying to do is decrease the number of visits to the hospital by people who are over 70,” she said.

With the increased number of home visits, Westaway said nurses have been ‘extra precautious’ to prevent transmission, including wearing a mask and changing their clothing upon returning to the hospital from a home visit. 

Westaway said patients and their families have a role to play too, urging them to be transparent with nurses about visitors in the home.

“If you’re having many visitors in your home, it’s important to let our nurses know that when they call before they come for a visit, “ she said. “Of course, if you’re over 70 you should not be having visitors in your home, you should only have those people who actually live with you.” 

As the expected pandemic peak approaches over the next few days, public health and safety officials in Kahnawake are maintaining the course for distancing measures. 

In a daily briefing on Friday, public safety commissioner, Lloyd Philips, acknowledged the impact of weeks of distancing measures on the community. 

“As much as we’re battling the virus, we’re also battling a psychological battle,” he said. “That feeling that people are feeling of being alone…that has an impact on you and we understand that.”

“Once we reach that peak, we’ll see where things will go,” said Philips.

Businesses and services deemed essential in the community will remain the same, despite comments from Quebec’s premier earlier in the week about expanding the list of essential services into the construction field.

“Just because the premier is doing something, doesn’t mean that we’re going to follow suit,” said Philips. “Regardless of what the province may say, we’re going to make the decisions for Kahnawake and in the best interests of our community.”

Unlike longterm care facilities in the rest of the province, there have been no reported cases of COVID-19 at the KMHC, Elder’s Lodge or ILC in the community, and Philips said measures must remain in place to keep things that way.

The first of three cleaning crews starts disinfecting at 3 a.m. every day to ensure the Kahnawake Youth Center (KYC), is ready to receive the children of essential workers. 

In a community address on Saturday, KYC director Kyle Zacharie said it’s a “team effort” with the Kahnawake Education Centre and the Kahnawake Shakotiia’takenhas Community Services (KSCS) staff pitching in to make sure the services are available. 

The center is following directives from the Kahnawake task force as well as the province. “We’re doing everything we can to keep everybody safe,” said Zacharie.

Meanwhile, over at the Step by Step Child and Family Center, daily traffic has reduced by around 90 per cent, according to the centre’s executive director, Natalie Beauvais.  

Like the KYC, Step by Step is providing emergency daycare services to front-line, essential workers. 

“It’s been going on for four weeks now that we’ve been doing this special emergency childcare,” said Beauvais. “We average between zero and ten children per day.”

Beauvais said the centre has implemented strict measures to ensure there is no transmission. The centre has halted classroom visits, now requiring all visitors to stop at reception, and is operating with a skeleton staff. 

Classroom sizes have been capped at 4-6 children per educator and children are no longer going for outdoor walks in the community, instead remaining on the centre’s property. Fewer toys are present in classrooms, and the ones that remain are disinfected daily. 

Beauvais said staff are not wearing Personal Protective Equipment at this time since it has not been mandated by the province. 

“We put our best foot forward and sometimes we have to reflect on the decisions we’ve made,” said Beauvais. “By consulting with others then we’re able to move forward. At the end of the day, we are all here for the best interests of everyone within our community.”

Kateri Memorial Hospital Center Dr. Annick Gauthier wasn’t mincing words in her daily update to Kahnawakero’non. 

“Today I want to show you my frustration,” said Gauthier at the Kahnawake 911 task force daily briefing on Friday. “I am despaired by what is going on.”

The comments come after numbers released yesterday by the Monteregie health authority indicated just 12 positive cases in Kahnawake—numbers which have caused some members of the community to question the need for strict distancing measures. 

Gauthier says a more accurate measure of the pandemic is to look at the  number of hospitalizations and deaths, instead of the number of cases. She is urging the community to continue following protocols into the long weekend.

In a best-case scenario, more than twelve hundred people in Quebec will die from COVID-19 by the end of this month, according to modelling released by the province’s public health agency earlier this week. To date, 241 people have died in the province. A worst-case scenario puts that number closer to nine thousand. 

Commissioner of Public Safety, Lloyd Phillips said he wants to see that number at zero for Kahnawake. 

“The next two weeks will be critical,” said Phillips.  “I know it’s frustrating, I know a lot of people are mentioning things on Facebook and asking ‘when is this going to end?’ but we’re at crunch time now.”