On June 23, Yukon’s Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Brendan Hanley announced the death of another Yukoner from COVID-19.
There have been four COVID-19 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic.
“COVID-19 is hitting unvaccinated Yukoners hard,” said Hanley.“We expect the trend of daily cases to continue for a few weeks, and we may see additional clusters and smaller outbreaks.
“Given the heartbreaking news today of yet another death, it is more important than ever that people stay home if ill, get tested if they have symptoms and get vaccinated.”
COVID-19 is being widely transmitted through the Yukon and is primarily affecting unvaccinated people, officials say. The virus is now in most communities — 11 of 14 communities have COVID-positive people.
There were four confirmed cases on June 23 and the active case count is 103. Since June 4, all of the variant testing results received to date are positive for the Gamma (P.1) variant.
Three of the new cases are in Whitehorse and one is in a community. Contact tracing is underway.
Because of persisting symptoms, several people previously reported as recovered have been reclassified as active.
The Yukon’s total case count is 224.
Testing for COVID is more “important than ever”. Even vaccinated people can get the virus and should seek testing if they show any of the symptoms.
In Whitehorse, people experiencing symptoms can call the COVID-19 Testing and Assessment Centre at 867-393-3083 or book testing online at https://book-covid-19-test.service.yukon.ca/en/.
Drive-up testing is also available at the CTAC from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m daily at 49A Waterfront Place.
Rural Yukoners should contact their community health centre.
(John Tonin)