All five NWT Covid-19 patients to date have now recovered

The NWT government says all five people so far diagnosed with Covid-19 in the Northwest Territories have now recovered from the disease.

Dr Kami Kandola, the territory’s chief public health officer, tweeted on Monday morning: “I am excited to announce that, as of today, all of Northwest Territories’ Covid-19 cases to date are recovered.”

By Sunday, three of the territory’s five cases to date had recovered. Monday’s announcement confirmed the remaining two cases were no longer active.

To be declared recovered, a person must have two Covid-19 tests 24 hours apart and then have each one come back negative.

Monday’s news means at the moment, there are no cases of Covid-19 in the NWT of which the territory’s health authority is aware.

However, that doesn’t mean the territory is definitely clear of the disease. It’s possible some people with the disease may not have sought testing or may be asymptomatic, meaning they may not even know they have it.

All restrictions issued by Dr Kandola remain in place.

Kandola has long maintained that, regardless of the number of cases in the NWT, restrictions will not be eased until southern Canada is demonstrably past its peak number of daily new Covid-19 cases and has successfully “flattened the curve.”