State of Emergency Extended in Kahnawake: Masks Not Yet Mandatory

The State of Emergency in Kahnawake is being extended for another 30 days  through August 21^st. The current period was slated to expire next Tuesday, July 21st. Arnold Lazare of the Kahnawake Covid-19 Task Force says part of the reason for the extension is due to the outbreak in the surrounding communities.

“We saw just how much the effect of one party had. So we’re saying that to be cautious we’ve extended another 30 days,” Lazare said.

The Task Force says that the Exo Bus service will return to Kahnawake on August 10th. It has not been stopping in the community since the beginning of the pandemic.

Bars, social clubs and indoor gyms in Kahnawake will not be permitted to reopen next Monday, which was the original target date for the Task Force. The date has been pushed back to August 10^th.

“primarily because at the beginning of the evening people will respect guidelines,” Lazare said. “But it’s documented that as people consume alcohol their inhibitions get lowered. The fear, it’s not actually a fear, it’s a fact that guidelines will be broken.”

Meanwhile the Quebec Government is expected to make the wearing of masks in indoor public spaces mandatory as of July 20^th. The Kahnawake Covid-19 Task Force is discussing that possibility as well. “We think it’s a good idea,” said Lisa Westaway, the Executive director of the Kateri Memorial Hospital Centre. “We also spoke about it at the Task Force meeting yesterday. We are not going to be making it mandatory here in Kahnawake yet. What we want to do is get a feeling of where the community is at with that. We’re going to make strong recommendations that all of our community members that our business owners require wearing masks in their establishments in indoor public places and we’re going to do a survey to see how people feel.”