Kahnawake asks residents to limit family gatherings for New Year's Eve
Health authorities in Kahnawake say residents' safest bet this New Year's Eve is to keep their celebrations contained to their own household.
As of Wednesday, the Kanien'kehá:ka (Mohawk) community reported 93 active infections within the population of about 8,000. One person is in intensive care, and hundreds more are estimated to be in isolation.
In light of the news, officials made a plea to residents to keep their gatherings small in an attempt to contain community spread, as emergency services get stretched-thin.
"This wave has had an impact on emergency services," said Chief Peacekeeper Dwayne Zachary in a Thursday announcement, adding that response workers have been forced to work overtime.
Officials released new recommendations including two celebration options for residents, depending on how risk-averse or vulnerable they are.
Under the strictest, safest option, residents are being asked to restrict their parties to their own households.
The second recommendation, "which involves increased risk," according to a news release, allows for one additional household visiting per day. In that case, residents should wear masks, distance, and keep their hands clean.
Anything more than that is not reccomended, and household groups that include members over 70 or those suffering from immuno-compromising conditions shouldn't take the second option. That also applies for households with people who care for elders or immuno-compromised people.
"I'm sure each and every one of you ... is aware of the situation in our community. We have a large number of cases," said Zachary.
"We don't want to go out and have to enforce directives and issue fines or anything like that. We're calling on you, the members of our community, to help us."
"We're looking at each and every one of you taking into account you own mental health," he continued. "You need to do what's right for you, I understand that, but at the same time you have to be responsible to the community."
Read the full release from public health officials below:
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Police: Buffalo gunman aimed to keep killing if he got away
The white gunman accused of massacring 10 Black people in a racist rampage at a Buffalo supermarket planned to keep killing if he had escaped the scene, the police commissioner said Monday, as the possibility of federal hate crime or domestic terror charges loomed.

Conservative leadership candidate Pierre Poilievre denounces 'white replacement theory'
Pierre Poilievre is denouncing the 'white replacement theory' believed to be a motive for a mass shooting in Buffalo, N.Y., as 'ugly and disgusting hate-mongering.'
Ontario driver who killed woman and three daughters sentenced to 17 years in prison
A driver who struck and killed a woman and her three young daughters nearly two years ago 'gambled with other people's lives' when he took the wheel, an Ontario judge said Monday in sentencing him to 17 years behind bars.
What we know so far about the victims of the Buffalo mass shooting
A former police officer, the 86-year-old mother of Buffalo's former fire commissioner, and a grandmother who fed the needy for decades were among those killed in a racist attack by a gunman on Saturday in a Buffalo grocery store. Three people were also wounded.
Documents show a pattern of human rights abuses against gender diverse prisoners
Facing daily instances of violence and abuse, gender diverse people in the Canadian prison system say they are forced to take measures into their own hands to secure their safety.
White 'replacement theory' fuels racist attacks
A racist ideology seeping from the internet's fringes into the mainstream is being investigated as a motivating factor in the supermarket shooting that killed 10 people in Buffalo, New York. Most of the victims were Black.
WATCH LIVE | Ontario party leaders face off during 2022 election debate
The Ontario election leaders debate is happening on Monday night. Watch it live here.
Amber Heard says she feared she would not survive Johnny Depp marriage
'Aquaman' actor Amber Heard told jurors in a defamation case on Monday that she filed for divorce from Johnny Depp in 2016 because she worried she would not survive physical abuse by him.
Russia faces diplomatic and battlefield setbacks on Ukraine
Moscow suffered another diplomatic setback Monday in its war with Ukraine as Sweden joined Finland in deciding to seek NATO membership, while Ukraine's president congratulated soldiers who reportedly pushed Russian forces back near the border.