Toronto Star – COVID-19 is negatively impacting both on-reserve and off-reserve Indigenous populations. “Hospitalizations and intensive-care rates are sky high for off-reserve populations and testing is low. Both on and off reserves, about 18% of tests come back positive. The issues identified by Janet Smylie, research chair in Indigenous health knowledge and information at Well Living House at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto is threefold:

1. Urban Indigenous people are not included in federal statistics nor are they “included in new initiatives to collect statistics on a disaggregated basis to take into account minorities
2. They check all the boxes for being at high risk for catching COVID-19
3. Due to health delivery being delivered by the provinces, Indigenous data is fragmented as a result of “decades of entrenched jurisdictional conflict and passing the buck”
4. The trends in Manitoba could be indicative of broader trends impacting urban indigenous communities in other provinces and sound, reliable data is essential to inform decisions.

“Resources could be allocated to a fragile segment of the population in a way that is both effective and meaningful”. The National Association of Friendship Centres is at the frontline of delivering services to the urban Indigenous population with centres across the country. “Staff at the centres are constantly scrambling for extra space, resources and personal protective equipment to handle the safety demands of the virus.” Jocelyn Formsma, Executive Director, NAFC