It is one of the most isolated places in the United States. A vast arid expanse, the size of Ireland, straddling three states in the American West: Utah, Nevada, Arizona. Despite the remoteness, the Navajo tribe was hit head-on by the coronavirus. In mid-April, its president, Jonathan Nez, himself in quarantine at his residence in Window Rock (Arizona) after having been in the presence of an infected person, called for the rescue.
Appeal heard. On Wednesday April 22, seven doctors and fourteen nurses from the San Francisco University Hospital left California to help their Navajo colleagues, devastated by an epidemic that affected 1,360 people in an area of 156,000 residents. It is the third highest contamination rate in the United States, behind New York and New Jersey. On the Navajo reserve alone, forty-nine people have died since the beginning of March, more than in thirteen states of the country. San Francisco, a city four times more populated, recorded half as many deaths as the Indian nation of the Colorado River highlands.
The first case was reported on March 17. Three days later, the president of the tribe imposed general confinement: there were then fourteen confirmed cases. The contamination reportedly started after a rally at the Evangelical Church in Chilchinbito, near Kayenta, Arizona, on March 7, in the presence of pastors from all parts of the reserve. According to Navajo Times, one of them was coughing while delivering the sermon. Several days later, several participants suffered from fever and sore throat, but their relatives, who knew nothing about the epidemic, remained with them, at the risk of spreading the virus themselves. The sick were treated in one of the four hospitals of the Indian Health Service (IHS), the federal service responsible for the health of the tribes, under treaties concluded in the XIXe century between Washington and the Indian nations.
No running water
The epidemic has highlighted the chronic problems of the Navajo reserve, the largest in the country, and one of the most under-equipped, due to dispersed housing. A third of households do not have running water, an aggravating factor while the fight against the epidemic requires washing their hands regularly. Fifteen thousand residents do not have electricity. The shortage of housing and the traditional way of life, which sees several generations on the same land, also prevent physical distance.
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