Tribal leaders impose curfew, other restrictions to combat contagion
7 deaths reported on reservation in 2 weeks
A worsening COVID-19 outbreak on the sprawling Navajo reservation that reaches into New Mexico has prompted tribal leaders to impose a curfew and other staunch restrictions to combat the contagion.
Reported novel coronavirus cases on the Navajo Nation, which spans Arizona, New Mexico and Utah, reached 174 on Wednesday with seven deaths — a rapid escalation from when the first Navajo tribal member tested positive two weeks ago.
In New Mexico’s portion of Navajo lands, there were 15 cases in San Juan County, 10 in McKinley County and one in Cibola County, according to the latest data.
“We haven’t nearly reached the peak of the virus — that’s what’s our health care experts are telling us,” Navajo Nation Vice President Myron Lizer said in a news release.
“So, we need to be proactive and do everything we can to prepare for the worst, but pray and hope for the best,” he added.
Navajo representatives didn’t respond to repeated requests for comment and information about the outbreak.
Some officials have linked the outbreak to a church rally in Chilchinbeto, Ariz., where the pastor was coughing and congregants greeted each other with handshakes and hugs, the Los Angeles Times reported.
On Sunday, Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez ordered
a curfew from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. to bolster the stay-at-home order issued March 20. It limits people to essential activities outside their homes, such as shopping and doctor appointments.
Nez also ordered a shutdown of nonessential businesses on the reservation. This week, he worked with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to set up a medical mobilization station at a community center.
Many Navajos are impoverished, suffer from diabetes, distrust government health authorities and live in remote areas that are far from medical facilities, all of which contribute to the virus’ spread, experts and state officials say.
Diabetes is among the medical conditions that make a person more vulnerable to COVID19, the disease caused by the
coronavirus. An estimated 1 in 5 Navajos suffers from diabetes, partly because of the region’s past uranium mining and also from eating high-starch foods that make a cheaper diet for impoverished tribal members, said Wendy Greyeyes, a Navajo professor of Native American studies at the University of New Mexico.
“So the impact of this pandemic upon a population with these preexisting conditions will have a devastating effect,” Greyeyes said.
About 1,000 uranium mines operated on Navajo lands in the past, she said, hurting the health of the workers and their families when they came home coated in radioactive dirt.
High-starch diets compound the diabetes problem, Greyeyes said. Nez has encouraged the reservation’s 13 grocery stores to sell fresh fruits and vegetables at lower prices, and the tribal government also has imposed a junk food tax, she said.
“Unfortunately, it will take a
lot more work to transform the diets for many Navajo families,” Greyeyes said.
Nez is also helping Navajos overcome their longtime distrust of the federal government so they will heed warnings and advisories issued by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, she said.
Nez is also encouraging people to share information with one another, including on social media, to safeguard their health and curb the virus’ spread, Greyeyes said.
Roughly 178,000 Navajos live on the reservation, which is about the size of West Virginia. Many of them, including elderly residents, live in remote areas without electricity or running water.
This puts them farther from medical facilities, making it more difficult for them to be tested, receive health information and get treatments for COVID-19 and other illnesses, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said Tuesday on a Facebook forum.
“You’ve got populations who have very specific rates of chronic disease, and they have long distances to travel for, say, things such as dialysis,” Lujan Grisham said. “This creates a different set of risks. Those risks must be addressed so that we don’t see transmission or infection rates that can cause harm in ways that we could’ve prevented.”
New Mexico health officials are working with the tribe to convey messages on social distancing, such as not taking an entire family to shop for groceries, Lujan Grisham said.
Navajos who live in rural areas often come to town at the same time when they receive checks from the government or employers, which makes social distancing more of a challenge and more important, Greyeyes said.
“It is critical that … every business on the Navajo Nation work to encourage six feet distancing between members,” she said.