Navajo Nation residents to be under strictest lockdown yet

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Navajo Nation residents to be under strictest lockdown yet

By FELICIA FONSECA
May 15, 2020

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — Residents of the Navajo Nation will be under the strictest weekend lockdown yet, with grocery stores and gas stations closed, and even essential workers ordered to stay home.

Navajo President Jonathan Nez made the announcement after a spike in deaths that he attributed to shifting traffic patterns after the city of Gallup recently shut down to outside visitors. That lockdown in northwestern New Mexico has since ended.

On the Navajo Nation, residents will face citations, with potential fines and jail time, if they leave their homes during the lockdown, which starts Friday night and ends Monday around dawn. Nez urged people to listen and not pack their bags to head out of town during the lockdown.

“Stay home, that’s the bottom line. There’s nothing wrong with staying home and taking care of your home, taking care of your family members,” a frustrated Nez said Thursday. “We need to be able to recognize that what you do affects everybody.”

While the state of Arizona has loosened its restrictions on residents and businesses, the Navajo Nation has clamped down. The tribe already has daily nighttime curfews and requires people to wear masks when out in public. Government offices are closed or have limited services. The tribe’s stay-at-home order has been extended to June 7, while Arizona’s expired Friday.

-snip-

Read more: https://apnews.com/8c0419cddb40720df0b85c2cbb7b0358

[abqtommy]

1. I heard elsewhere on DU today that there were 4 new infections on the Crow Reservation in

Eastern Montana. I sure hope somebody's working on these infections that are impacting the brown and black members of our family so badly...

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

2. I live in New Mexico,

and I'm very aware of the issues on the Navajo Nation. Our largest infections are those in the part of the state that encompasses the Navajo Nation. It's important to understand that a lot of people there don't have running water, which is the rock bottom essential thing here. If you don't have running water, washing your hands isn't all that easy.

I have long pointed out that in the flu epidemic of 1918, a huge number of people did not have access to running water, and so could not easily wash their hands.

Regular hand washing is the rock-bottom public health mandate ever. If you can't or don't wash your hands, then all bets are off.

[Runningdawg]

3. I don't think most people have any idea about Rez life.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

4. So true.

If I didn't live here I would probably not be as aware.

Are you at all familiar with Ricardo Caté's strip "Without Reservations"? It's a one panel comic that runs in the Santa Fe New Mexican, and probably nowhere else. Which is too bad, because it ought to be seen by a lot more people.