Curfew is on through October
WINDOW ROCK
Navajo Nation will be on 56-hour weekend lockdowns for the remainder of October, which includes during Halloween weekend.
Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez told viewers of the regular Tuesday virtual town hall that lockdowns and daily curfews will continue on as the Navajo Nation has had an upsurge in COVID-19 cases.
As of Monday night there are now 10,728 COVID-19 cases and of that 7,343 recoveries. There were also a reported six more deaths totaling 571 deaths. Over 50 percent of the Navajo Nation population has been tested for COVID-19 at 112,648.
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Nez said epidemiologists and contact tracers have informed him the upswing in positive tests is due to family gatherings where a member of the family is COVID-positive and spreads it to those also in attendance. Family members who live off the Navajo Nation bringing it back to their family, or family travelling far off the Navajo Nation catching the virus and then bringing it back are other causes.
Daily curfews will be from 9 p.m. (an hour later than the existing curfew) to 5 a.m.; weekend lockdowns will start Friday at 9 p.m. and go to Monday 5 a.m. Nez said with the extra hour don’t travel to border towns to shop, and said businesses on the Nation are safer than anywhere else so its best to shop on Navajo.
“Businesses on the Navajo Nation are doing an excellent job mandating masks to be worn in their facilities, also providing hand washing stations,” said Nez. “As you go off some businesses are a little lenient. The further you go it isn’t as extreme as we are.”
Highway 264,
I-40, WB @ Winslow