TORONTO -- Nunavut, the territory that had made international headlines for keeping COVID-19 out through the spring and summer, has reported its first deaths linked to the disease.
Premier Joe Savikataaq announced Sunday that two male Nunavut residents had died on Saturday.
One was a Rankin Inlet resident who contracted the virus outside Nunavut, Savikataaq said, while the other was an Arviat resident who had been airlifted to a hospital outside the territory after "developing complications related to COVID-19."
Nunavut did not record a single case of COVID-19 linked to community spread until Nov. 6. Despite this clean record, the territory imposed strong measures to prevent the virus from spreading should it emerge, worried about the effects it could have on the territory's remote communities. Schools and daycares were closed through the spring, and a travel ban prevented anyone from entering the territory except for work or an essential reason.
There have been 259 COVID-19 cases confirmed in the territory over the past 44 days. Virus activity in Nunavut has been declining, with only 12 cases reported in the past week, nine of them on Monday. The number of active cases in Nunavut had dwindled to 34 as of Friday.
Nearly all of the territory's infections have been reported in Arviat, the community of 2,800 that was home to one of the two patients who died Saturday.
