Presumptive Nunavut COVID case turns out negative after further testing

IQALUIT, Nunavut — Tests for what would have been Nunavut’s first case of COVID-19 have come back negative.

The territory’s chief public health officer, Dr. Michael Patterson, is confirming the result this morning.

A fly-in worker at the Mary River iron mine on the northern tip of Baffin Island was originally diagnosed positive on June 30.

Medical officials have said the initial result was on the low end of the infection spectrum.

Patterson says the worker, originally from Western Canada, and all of that person’s eight contacts will no longer have to isolate.

None of the contacts have developed symptoms that are consistent with COVID-19.

Nunavut remains the only jurisdiction in Canada without a confirmed case of the infection. A presumed positive case in the spring also turned out to be negative.

The Canadian Press