Coronavirus in rural America (Part VIII): Indian Country

The Los Angeles Times reported from the Navajo nation a few days ago under the headline "No running water. No electricity. On Navajo Nation, coronavirus creates worry and confusion as cases surge."  Kurtis Lee writes from Cameron, Arizona, population 885:

Lisa Robbins runs the generator attached to her family’s mobile home for just a few hours most mornings. With no electricity, it provides heat in this rural high-desert stretch of the Navajo Nation where overnight temperatures often linger in the low 30s this time of year. 

Robbins first started hearing the whispers earlier this month — the fever, that sickness, something called coronavirus — but most people in this town of about 900 didn’t seem too worried. It was far off, neighbors told her, a world away in the big cities. 

So, Robbins, who rarely has access to the internet or TV news, continued with her daily routine, which includes helping her mother, who sometimes suffers from side effects of a surgery years ago to remove a cancerous stomach tumor.

Then came the bang on her door and a stark warning from local leaders. 

“They told us to stay inside … don’t come out because people could die,” Robbins said one evening last week. “It hit us so fast, no one knows what to do.”

The story tells of the likely spread of the virus from an evangelical church rally in Chilchinbeto, Arizona on March 7.  The Navajo Nation reported its first coronavirus case on the reservation on March 17, but within a few days the number jumped to 115.

The Navajo nation includes 175,000 residents spread over an area larger than West Virginia and served by just four inpatient hospitals.

Postscript:  Here is a hard-hitting NPR story on the coronavirus' impact on the Navajo Nation. Note the focus on water.  Forty percent of the Navajo reservation doesn't have running water, which means hand-washing is a luxury for them.