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US officials have urged residents of the Navajo Nation to stay at home as coronavirus cases continue to rise in the Native American reservation, testing the limits of local healthcare resources.
“It’s gotten to the point where our facilities are deeply challenged and getting to the point of being overwhelmed,” said Dr Jonathan Iralu, a consultant for the government's Indian Health Service.
“Our hospital beds are full, and when we try to send persons to other hospitals in New Mexico and Arizona... they are essentially 100% full," he added, according to public broadcaster PBS.
Authorities have reported 17,310 cases and 663 coronavirus-related deaths on the reservation, which spans across the states of Utah, New Mexico and Arizona. Since Covid-19 was first reported on the Navajo Nation in March, infection rates per capita have become some of the highest in the country compared with any individual state.
A reservation-wide lockdown - originally due to end on Sunday - has been extended for another three weeks. Officials are also lobbying the federal government for a disaster declaration, which would allow them to exercise emergency powers to preserve public health.
Navajo activists argue that Nation's outbreak has been made worse by economic and social inequalities, such as poor access to food, high unemployment, and a lack of access to water and electricity.
Earlier this year, a report by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that members of Native American and Alaska Native communities are nearly four times more likely to be hospitalised than non-Hispanic White people.
This week, President-elect Joe Biden named the Navajo Nation's health director, Dr Jill Jim, to his coronavirus advisory board.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiK2h0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmJiYy5jby51ay9uZXdzL2xpdmUvdWstNTUxODQwMDnSAQA?oc=5
2020-12-04 12:53:32Z
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