HOOPA VALLEY TRIBE SEES 2ND COVID-19 SURGE
The Hoopa Valley Tribe is experiencing a second surge of COVID-19 cases while it is simultaneously working to vaccinate the vulnerable.
As of Monday afternoon, the Hoopa Valley Tribe’s K’ima:w Medical Center reported 41 active cases on the reservation, 75 recoveries and zero deaths, bringing the total number of COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began to 116. In a letter to the community Saturday, the medical center’s board of directors and its chief executive director, Dr. Emmett Chase, wrote positive cases range in age from infancy to 87 years old and are predominantly women.
“During our first surge we had approximately 50 cases, which we were able to stop within a couple of weeks, with a few known households involved,” the letter states. “This second surge is more widespread involving dozens of households including many asymptomatic (without COVID-19 symptoms) individuals without obvious known contacts. This means this second surge has the potential for far more spread throughout the community than the first.”
Several staff members of the medical center have tested positive, including two clinical staff members, and are being kept in isolation, the letter states. The center is being routinely deep cleaned and is doing mostly virtual medical visits to reduce exposure to the virus, it states.
“We will continue to vaccinate staff and elders over age 75 before the end of 2020 and anticipate additional vaccines soon,” it states.
Dr. Eva Smith said in a Facebook video Thursday that the tribe chose to receive shipments of the Moderna vaccine, which already arrived, rather than the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which requires special ultracold storage.
“We vaccinated 10 people on Wednesday as a trial run,” Smith said, including herself, and none of the 10 people experienced adverse reactions to the vaccine.
The medical center received 200 doses of the vaccine Dec. 22 and is expecting a second shipment “the first week of the new year,” which “will allow for elder vaccinations at the Senior Nutrition Center” according to a post on the Hoopa Fire Department and Office of Emergency Services Facebook page.
The Hoopa Tribe saw its first surge of COVID-19 cases over the summer in August, hitting just over 50 cases before fizzling out, with a few sporadic positive cases popping up from time to time. The second surge took off in the middle of this month,
jumping from two active cases on Dec. 14 to 43 by the past Sunday.
The reservation has been fortunate not to have any deaths and only two hospitalizations so far, Smith said. Asymptomatic individuals are being advised to self-isolate for 10 days, though Smith said medical center staff check on people who have tested positive to ensure the disease isn’t worsening and requiring hospitalization.
A close contact has shifted from a person who was exposed to a positive COVID-19 individual for a continuous 15 minutes to being exposed to that individual for 15 minutes over the course of 24 hours, she said.
At this moment, the most important thing people can do is continue wearing their masks and staying socially distant, said Smith and Wendy FerrisGeorge, deputy incident commander for Hoopa’s COVID-19 team, in the same video.
“There are only 3,500 Hupas left on this earth,” Ferris-George said. “Each life lost is our history gone, our knowledge gone and our existence being taken from us.”
“This second surge is more widespread involving dozens of households including many asymptomatic (without COVID-19 symptoms) individuals without obvious known contacts. This means this second surge has the potential for far more spread throughout the community than the first.” — K’ima:w Medical Center’s board of directors