Kandola dismisses rumour of Whatì Covid-19 case

The NWT’s chief public health officer has taken the unusual step of publicly dismissing social media claims of a Covid-19 case in the community of Whatì.

Kami Kandola, posting to Twitter on Saturday, said “a rumour has been going around on Facebook that there is a case of Covid-19 in Whatì.”

The chief public health officer added: “This is not true.”

Kandola instructed residents to check the websites of northern news outlets and the territorial government’s own Covid-19 website for news of confirmed cases.

There have been five confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the NWT to date and none since April. (More recently, two cases were confirmed at the Diavik diamond mine but added to the totals of Alberta and Ontario respectively, as the individuals affected had flown to the mine directly from those provinces.)

More than 5,500 negative tests had been recorded in the territory as of Friday.

The NWT says turnaround times for tests are now below two days on average, with the introduction of more rapid testing expected in the coming weeks.