The Navajo Nation on Tuesday reported two new confirmed COVID-19 cases, but no additional deaths for the third consecutive day.
The latest numbers brought the pandemic totals on the tribe’s reservation to 30,269 cases and 1,262 known deaths.
Tribal officials had ordered a lockdown last weekend over fears that a new variant could drive another deadly surge.
The Stay-At-Home order required all Navajo Nation residents to refrain from unnecessary travel to help limit the spread of the virus, including a new and more contagious strain.
So far, nearly 16,500 people on the Navajo Nation have recovered from COVID-19.
“This invisible monster known as COVID-19 is still in our communities,” tribal President Jonathan Nez said in a statement Tuesday. “It has taken us over one year to reach this point where we have consistent low numbers of new infections reported each day, but it only takes a few days and few careless acts to have another large surge in new cases.”
Nez recently announced the first confirmed case of the COVID-19 B.1.429 variant on the reservation that covers parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.
The variant was first identified in the state of California and has since been detected across the southwest U.S.