Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak Inc – Letter to PM Trudeau – With 264 confirmed COVID-19 cases in a community of just over 1000 people, Shamattawa First Nation in northern Manitoba immediate assistance from your office to help us evacuate the Elders of Shamattawa to ensure they are able to safely isolate in closer proximity to health services, should they develop complications from COVID-19.

We need to ensure Elders and anyone with underlying health issues are able to access emergency health services should the need arrive. Health infrastructure and services are not set up to assist Shamattawa with an outbreak this large in scale. We know from the data in Manitoba that First Nations people are being disproportionately impacted by COVID-19.

The people from our communities are being hospitalized and put into intensive care units at higher rates than non-Indigenous Manitobans.