Partnership Between a Federal Agency and 4 Tribal Nations to Improve COVID-19 Response Capacities.

Upon request from tribal nations, and as part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC's) emergency response, CDC staff provided both remote and on-site assistance to tribes to plan, prepare, and respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. From April 2, 2020, through June 11, 2021, CDC deployed a total of 275 staff to assist 29 tribal nations. CDC staff typically collaborated in multiple work areas including epidemiology and surveillance (86%), contact tracing (76%), infection prevention control (72%), community mitigation (72%), health communication (66%), incident command structure (55%), emergency preparedness (38%), and worker safety (31%). We describe the activities of CDC staff in collaboration with 4 tribal nations, Northern Cheyenne, Hoopa Valley, Shoshone-Bannock, and Oglala Sioux Tribe, to combat COVID-19 and lessons learned from the engagement.

COVID-19 response by the Hopi Tribe: impact of systems improvement during the first wave on the second wave of the pandemic.

The Hopi Tribe is a sovereign nation home to ~7500 Hopi persons living primarily in 12 remote villages. The Hopi Tribe, like many other American Indian nations, has been disproportionately affected by COVID-19. On 18 May 2020, a team from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was deployed on the request of the tribe in response to increases in COVID-19 cases. Collaborating with Hopi Health Care Center (the reservation's federally run Indian Health Service health facility) and CDC, the Hopi strengthened public health systems and response capacity from May to August including: (1) implementing routine COVID-19 surveillance reporting; (2) establishing the Hopi Incident Management Authority for rapid coordination and implementation of response activities across partners; (3) implementing a community surveillance programme to facilitate early case detection and educate communities on COVID-19 prevention; and (4) applying innovative communication strategies to encourage mask wearing, hand hygiene and physical distancing. These efforts, as well as community adherence to mitigation measures, helped to drive down cases in August. As cases increased in September-November, the improved capacity gained during the first wave of the pandemic enabled the Hopi leadership to have real-time awareness of the changing epidemiological landscape. This prompted rapid response coordination, swift scale up of health communications and redeployment of the community surveillance programme. The Hopi experience in strengthening their public health systems to better confront COVID-19 may be informative to other indigenous peoples as they also respond to COVID-19 within the context of disproportionate burden.

A SARS-CoV-2 Outbreak Illustrating the Challenges in Limiting the Spread of the Virus - Hopi Tribe, May-June 2020.

On June 3, 2020, a woman aged 73 years (patient A) with symptoms consistent with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) (1) was evaluated at the emergency department of the Hopi Health Care Center (HHCC, an Indian Health Services facility) and received a positive test result for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The patient's symptoms commenced on May 27, and a sibling (patient B) of the patient experienced symptom onset the following day. On May 23, both patients had driven together and spent time in a retail store in Flagstaff, Arizona. Because of their similar exposures, symptom onset dates, and overlapping close contacts, these patients are referred to as co-index patients. The co-index patients had a total of 58 primary (i.e., direct) and secondary contacts (i.e., contacts of a primary contact); among these, 27 (47%) received positive SARS-CoV-2 test results. Four (15%) of the 27 contacts who became ill were household members of co-index patient B, 14 (52%) had attended family gatherings, one was a child who might have transmitted SARS-CoV-2 to six contacts, and eight (30%) were community members. Findings from the outbreak investigation prompted the HHCC and Hopi Tribe leadership to strengthen community education through community health representatives, public health nurses, and radio campaigns. In communities with similar extended family interaction, emphasizing safe ways to stay in touch, along with wearing a mask, frequent hand washing, and physical distancing might help limit the spread of disease.