BC’s provincial health officer says they are aware of the situation on the Anaham reserve after a person, released from prison, visited family en route to a halfway house in Prince George.
Doctor Bonnie Henry says that is part of some ongoing challenges they are having around the outbreak at the Mission facility when inmates are released…
“I am also aware that there are a number of issues in many regions around indigenous people and going home to their communities, and yes we are monitoring this. I know that the First Nations Health Authority has been in touch around this specific issue.”
Doctor Henry says First Nations in other communities have also being impacted by people visiting.
“The Mission facility outbreak is the second one that we are dealing with right now, and it is complex. It involves our federal partners, Correctional Services Canada, it involves a lot of work that Fraser Health has been doing to try to make sure we have the right infection prevention and control measures in place to protect the inmates and the people who work at the correctional facility, as well as the community.”
Doctor Henry says part of it is being notified when people are leaving the facility and making sure they can support them, because with every outbreak, with every close contact situation, we want people to self isolate for that 14 days, so that they`re not in a position of transmitting it to anyone else.
Around 700 on-reserve members on the Anaham reserve are now being urged to self isolate for 14 days by Chief Joe Alphonse.
We have reached out to Alphonse to see if anyone in the community is showing symptoms, but have so far not heard back from him.