A month after the tribe’s first confirmed case, at least 1,197 Navajo residents have tested positive for the coronavirus, while 44 have died, officials say. (1/7) #NBCNewsThreads nbcnews.com/news/us-news/c…
With a steady increase in cases, people on the Navajo Nation are testing positive for the coronavirus at a rate more than 9 times higher than people in the entire state of Arizona, based on reported cases and 2010 census data. (2/7)
The coronavirus is exposing underlying fractures in the infrastructure of Indian Country, including health care and basic needs, like water, that have long been underfunded, and some say ignored by the federal government. (3/7)
An estimated 30% of homes on the Navajo reservation, which has roughly 175,000 residents, don't have access to clean, reliable drinking water and have to haul it from local utilities, according to the Navajo Nation Dept. of Water Resources. (4/7)
"You're saying 20 seconds of wash your hands with water," Dr. Michelle Tom said recently. "We have to haul our water … we do not have plumbing. And that's how I grew up.” (5/7) 
Tom, who practices family medicine, says that even without the strain of the pandemic, she doesn't have the resources she needs to provide adequate medical care and has access to only 2 ventilators. (6/7)
"We cater to 17,000 Navajo, and people come from Apache, Hopi, as far as 3 hours away," Tom said.
"Our resources are limited. Rural medicine is hard enough. We've always been short-staffed in general.” (7/7)
"Our resources are limited. Rural medicine is hard enough. We've always been short-staffed in general.” (7/7)
