{"id":319,"date":"2020-03-16T10:36:12","date_gmt":"2020-03-16T14:36:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.indianz.com\/covid19\/?p=319"},"modified":"2020-03-16T10:40:16","modified_gmt":"2020-03-16T14:40:16","slug":"cherokee-nation-taking-proactive-approaches-to-prepare-for-coronavirus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/covid19\/2020\/03\/16\/cherokee-nation-taking-proactive-approaches-to-prepare-for-coronavirus\/","title":{"rendered":"Cherokee Nation taking proactive approaches to prepare for coronavirus"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Cherokee

Katherine Rathjen participates in a practice drill Tuesday answering phone lines at the Cherokee Nation Outpatient Health Center, where a call center is now set up to answer tribal citizen questions on the coronavirus. The call center number is 1-833-528-0063. Photo: Anadisgoi\/Cherokee Nation<\/p><\/div>\n

News Release: March 10, 2020<\/p>\n

TAHLEQUAH, Okla. \u2014 The Cherokee Nation continues efforts to help its tribal citizens, employees, health centers and schools educate and prepare for the coronavirus within the Cherokee Nation.<\/p>\n

While there are no confirmed cases of COVID-19 within Cherokee Nation, the tribe wants citizens to stay informed and take precautions to reduce risk.<\/p>\n

The federal government passed an $8.3 billion emergency funding bill to combat COVID-19, which includes $40 million set aside for tribes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe must all act to stay healthy, monitoring our own health and that of our family, limiting travel if possible, and checking on our elders who are most vulnerable,\u201d Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. said. \u201cThe Cherokee Nation is securing federal funding to help us combat and treat any coronavirus cases, ensure we have the ability to do our own testing and that our medical staff are trained to identify, treat and respond to patients efficiently.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Cherokee Nation call center (1-833-528-0063) has been established for tribal citizens who have questions about the coronavirus. It will be open noon to 8 p.m. Monday-Friday. The call center has up to six lines to ensure tribal citizens have access to information.<\/p>\n

If tribal citizens have symptoms like cough, fever or other respiratory problems, they should contact their Cherokee Nation health center or primary care physician first and not go to the emergency room unless essential. Emergency rooms need to be able to serve those with the most critical needs. At Cherokee Nation health centers, health employees are also screening patients at the doors to ensure increased safety.<\/p>\n

The Cherokee Nation is working closely each day with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Indian Health Service to follow recommended safety protocols.<\/p>\n

With spring break approaching, the Cherokee Nation also asks tribal citizens to stay up to date with CDC’s travel health notices related to this outbreak, available at the following link: https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/coronavirus\/2019-ncov\/travelers\/index.html.<\/a><\/p>\n

The tribe encourages citizens to check on their friends and neighbors. Elders and anyone with underlying health conditions, such as diabetes, heart and lung disease, are more at risk.<\/p>\n

The Cherokee Nation is also taking a variety of measures to protect its workforce, such as stepping up cleaning and disinfection procedures in all facilities and restricting work-related travel as warranted.<\/p>\n

Due to the risk posed by COVID-19, Cherokee Nation administration has postponed upcoming, large-gathering events such as the Kansas City at-large community meeting and Cherokee Days at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. Both events will be rescheduled.<\/p>\n

The Cherokee Nation has also formed a response team and is working with its departments such as health services, human services, veterans center, food distribution, education and more to get safety information out to help better protect all citizens.<\/p>\n

\"Cherokee<\/p>\n

Cherokee Nation-related events postponed<\/h2>\n

At this time, the following events are being postponed:<\/strong><\/p>\n

March 14 \u2013 Artist showcase at the Cherokee National History Museum<\/p>\n

March 14 \u2013 \u201cAmerican Indians in Major League Baseball: The First Fifty Years\u201d exclusive discussion<\/p>\n

March 16 & 26 \u2013 Tribal Council Meeting & Committee Meetings<\/p>\n

March 17 \u2013 Pryor Community Youth Development<\/p>\n

March 19 \u2013 Spring break make-and-takes at Cherokee Nation museums<\/p>\n

March 19 \u2013 Cherokee Nation Youth Summit<\/p>\n

March 19 \u2013 Vinita Adult Resident Activity<\/p>\n

March 19 \u2013 Oaks Adult Resident and Youth Development Activities<\/p>\n

March 21 \u2013 Cherokee Family Research Center\u2019s genealogy workshop<\/p>\n

March 21 \u2013 Missouri At-large Annual Meeting<\/p>\n

March 22 \u2013 Kansas At-large Annual Meeting<\/p>\n

March 23 \u2013 Greasy Adult Resident Activity<\/p>\n

March 24 \u2013\u00a0 Hulbert Adult Resident Activity<\/p>\n

March 24 \u2013 Talking Leaves Job Corps, Youth Development Activity<\/p>\n

March 26 \u2013 Claremore Adult Resident Activity<\/p>\n

March 26 \u2013 Zion Boys and Girls Club, Youth Development Activity<\/p>\n

April 3-5 \u2013 Cherokee Days at Smithsonian\u2019s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n

April 5 \u2013 Washington D.C. At-large Annual Meeting<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.anadisgoi.com\/index.php\/government-stories\/282-cherokee-nation-related-events-postponed<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

News Release: March 10, 2020 TAHLEQUAH, Okla. \u2014 The Cherokee Nation continues efforts to help its tribal citizens, employees, health centers and schools educate and prepare for the coronavirus within the Cherokee Nation. While there are no confirmed cases of COVID-19 within Cherokee Nation, the tribe wants citizens to stay informed and take precautions to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tribes"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/covid19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/covid19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/covid19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/covid19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/covid19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/covid19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":326,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/covid19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319\/revisions\/326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/covid19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/covid19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/covid19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}