COVID-19 data on Indigenous Manitobans kept secret – Winnipeg Free Press
Manitoba is sitting on more than a month’s worth of data about COVID-19 cases in the at-risk Indigenous community that it will not release to the public, saying it belongs to its First Nation partners.
Chief public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin said public-health nurses have been asking those who test positive for COVID-19 to share their Indigenous identity or First Nation status since the beginning of April. He wouldn’t divulge how many of the 281 Manitobans who’ve tested positive in Manitoba so far self-identify as Indigenous.
“We haven’t been reporting on that as of yet. We’re going to still work with our Indigenous partners on how and when we might disclose those type of things,” Manitoba’s top public-health doctor said Monday. Manitoba has restricted visitors from travelling to northern First Nations and communities north of the 53rd parallel to try and prevent a COVID-19 outbreak and, so far, so good, although Manitoba’s prairie neighbours have had to battle COVID-19 outbreaks, including one in the Dene village of LaLoche, Sask., and one at Alberta’s Stoney Nakoda First Nation linked to a nearby meat-packing plant.
