COVID-19 Community Information Session

Community Information Session
Thursday, March 12th, 2020
6:30 pm at the E.P.R. Centre

Chief & Council and the Health Services department will be hosting an information session to answer your questions and discuss community strategies to address the situation with COVID-19 (Coronavirus).

Moose Cree First Nation Statement
Coronavirus (COVID-19)
March 12, 2020

The Chief & Council of Moose Cree First Nation (MCFN) has been monitoring the progression of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) outbreak over the past few weeks with increasing concern, this outbreak has now been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO). We have spent a considerable amount of time in Council meetings discussing this serious issue and the challenge it may represent to our Membership. We have consulted with our Health Services department along with local and regional health authorities and have been following the information and advisories from Health Canada and the WHO.

Our discussions have included the need to find ways to mitigate the risks to our Membership and to our community. Therefore, Chief & Council commends the LNHL Executive Committee on the decision to cancel the 2020 LNHL tournament. We strongly encourage our Membership and all community members to also reconsider attendance at other hockey tournaments and/or other large events during the March break and in the coming weeks. Should you choose to travel, we urge you to take precautionary measures and to monitor local media regarding COVID-19.

As another step to mitigate the risk to our community, Chief & Council passed a motion at a meeting yesterday March 11th, 2020 that bans all travel by Chief & Council and staff on MCFN-related business until further notice. This ban includes those travelling to Moose Factory on MCFN-related business such as consultants, legal counsel and other guests. This week all MCFN staff are also participating in mandatory training on how to prevent contracting and spreading COVID-19.

While it is unlikely that we can completely prevent COVID-19 from appearing in our community, we must all work together to minimize the risk and impacts. A widespread COVID-19 outbreak in Moose Factory would overwhelm our local health care infrastructure and would be a serious threat to our most vulnerable, the youngest children and the Elders, and those with pre-existing conditions such as diabetes and asthma.

The risk for contracting COVID-19 in Ontario remains low, but the risk is there. It is not our wish to overly alarm anyone, our goal is to ensure you are aware of the realities and challenges that may be presented to the Membership by this pandemic.

For questions about COVID-19 we also encourage you to contact the following:
1. MCFN Health Services at 705.658.4619
2. Moose Factory Health Centre at 705.658.4220 or “like” their Facebook page.
3. Another good source for accurate information about COVID-19 is the Public Health Ontario website at www.publichealthontario.ca.