Mural on the side of building in Shiprock, New Mexico, in the Nation Nation March 22, 2020.
The Navajo Nation Department of Health announced Tuesday that 77 communities had "uncontrolled spread of COVID-19" through Nov. 20 to Dec. 3.
The department of health reported Nov. 21 had its highest known daily case count throughout the whole pandemic: 398 cases. Over the last week, those reported daily case counts have gradually decreased to an average of 246 a day. The Navajo Department of Health reported Monday 213 news cases and the deaths of 15 more people.
Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez presented the nation's most recent stats in a Facebook Live town hall Monday.
"Labor Day we let down. We let down — started to go out, we started to travel. We started to go do our own thing. We didn't recover. [The case count] just kept going up and up,"
New cases in the Navajo Nation are starting to plateau while those in the United States are still on an upward trend. There have been 18,163 known cases among the nation's residents and 682 deaths, as of Tuesday.
"We're flattening out right now. You're doing an outstanding job. Continue to do that. Don't let down. Please. Don't let down," Nez said.
He said he's wondering if the tribe has counted all of the infections connected to Thanksgiving gatherings, and that that will become clear in the next day or two.
"If that downward trend — that flattening of the curve — happens that means the Navajo people listened and stayed home during the three-week lockdown [that ended Sunday]," Nez said.
Monday marked the start of another three-week stay-at-home order for residents that will expire on Dec. 27. All essential businesses, like gas stations, grocery stores and hay vendors are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. only on weekdays, according to a press release.
“All of our hospital beds on the Navajo Nation are nearly full, which means our health care providers will have to begin to make very tough decisions about who can receive certain treatments and medical attention with their limited resources," said Vice President Myron Lizer in a press release Monday.
Lizer in the town hall encouraged residents to shop local, instead of possibly exposing themselves to the disease in border towns with less strict health protocols.
He then read off the COVID-19 stats for the states that cross the Navajo Nation. When he read Arizona's new daily case count for Tuesday — 12, 314 cases — he said he was shocked and said he had asked if the number was correct.
"I can't fathom that, but I have to, and you all have to," Lizer said.
Residents are also subject to 57-hour weekend lockdowns through the rest of December.
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