Two additional positive cases of COVID-19 were identified in Watson Lake over the weekend, Yukon public health said Oct. 26.
The cases are connected to the three others in the community announced on Oct. 23, bringing the total to five.
The two newly-identified individuals are from the same household and had confirmed direct exposures, as well as symptoms, at at least one of three possible places of public exposure identified on Oct. 23.
People who were at the following locations on the following dates are urged to arrange for testing at Watson Lake Community Hospital immediately:
- Watson Lake Foods – Super A between Oct. 8 and Oct. 16;
- Home Hardware between Oct. 7 and Oct. 10;
- and Big Horn Motel between Oct. 7 and Oct. 9 and again from Oct. 13 to 20.
Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Brendan Hanley has instructed that everyone in the community and in the territory should continue to monitor themselves for COVID-19 symptoms such as a dry cough, fever, loss of smell or taste and shortness of breath. They should get tested should any present.
As long as COVID-19 precautions are followed, people can safely visit those businesses now.
The two individuals who were tested positive over the weekend are self-isolating and “doing well at home” according to an email from health and social services spokesperson Patricia Living.
The three people who tested positive earlier in the week are all part of one family unit, with no history of travel outside the territory. They are now safely recovering in self-isolation.
The origin of the infection is still being investigated.
Contact investigations and testing of symptomatic contacts are continuing, and Living wrote that the government anticipates that further positive cases may still be found.
The new cases bring the Yukon’s total COVID-19 count to 22.
People in Watson Lake can contact the community hospital at 867-536-4444 to arrange for testing. Other Yukoners can contact the COVID-19 Testing and Assessment Centre in Whitehorse at 867-393-3083 or their community health centre.
Contact Haley Ritchie at haley.ritchie@yukon-news.com
Editor’s note: A previous version of this story listed the second set of dates for the Big Horn Motel as Oct. 13 to 16. The Yukon government has since changed the latter end of that range to Oct. 20.