‘Are we a top priority?’: How Indigenous communities are bracing for coronavirus – In-Depth-The Globe and Mail
A week after the World Health Organization declared the novel coronavirus a pandemic, Constance Lake First Nation, located about 600 kilometres northwest of Sudbury, declared a state of emergency and cited a lack of health-care personnel and medical supplies.
On Wednesday morning, Chief Rick Allen appeared on a Facebook livestream to assure the 60 or so virtual viewers that the community was not going into a full lockdown. He also encouraged community members to support each other.
But to the federal government, he had a different message.
“As Indigenous communities, are we a top priority? We have to get some assurance that we are as much a priority as any municipality or any big cities,” Mr. Allen said in an interview with The Globe and Mail.
Many Indigenous communities across Canada share in the heightened state of anxiety over the impact the virus could have and are ramping up preparations. Some have declared states of emergency while others have closed their borders to non-community members to reduce the possibility of community transmission.
