CBC – A state of emergency has been declared by Neskantaga First Nation after a number of its members living off-reserve tested positive for COVID-19.

Chief Chris Moonias says six per cent, or 12 of the 217 members living off-reserve, have tested positive for the virus. That includes one person in critical condition at the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre. The declaration requests that Indigenous Services Canada fund emergency housing “to accommodate the homeless population who have been forced off-reserve due to a lack of housing,” Chief Moonias added this means members of the First Nation often leave and end up in urban centres like Thunder Bay, Ont., where “some of them fall into homelessness, mental health issues and addictions.”

A fact sheet accompanying the press release explained that the community doesn’t have capacity to support necessary isolation for Neskantaga citizens that want to return home. That’s on top of the existing water, health, social services and other infrastructural deficits in the First Nation as a result of chronic underfunding.