Schools, businesses closed: Nunavut goes into territory-wide lockdown Nov. 18

IQALUIT — Nunavut is shutting down for two weeks starting today to try to get cases of COVID-19 under control.

All schools and non-essential businesses are closed, as are libraries, fitness centres, government offices and personal services.

Health centres are closed except for emergencies and the Qikiqtani General Hospital in Iqaluit is not accepting walk-ins.

Gatherings are restricted to five people and are not allowed in homes.

Nunavut went into a similar shutdown in March, but restrictions were lifted over the summer because the territory hadn’t had any cases.

That changed on Nov. 6 when the first case was recorded.

Since then, in not quite two weeks, four different communities have reported infections and as of Tuesday there were a total of 60 active cases in Nunavut.