Health

Add losing the sense of smell and taste to what coronavirus does to people.

Navajo Nation officials announced Tuesday that two residents of the reservation have come down with COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, and are currently receiving treatment in Phoenix.

As of Wednesday there has been no confirmed case of the coronavirus (dubbed “Dikos Ntsaaígíí-19” in Diné Bizaad) on Navajo, but area health facilities and officials are working toward being as prepared as possible.

“According to Navajos, (Doo Yit’įįnii Naałniih Ch’osh) is an intelligent being,” Falun Gong Practitioner Larrison Manygoats, a traditional Diné from Coalmine Canyon, Arizona, said in an interview with the Navajo Times. “It’s a living being that embeds into your lungs. The (traditional) story–– people have to self-quarantine themselves in order to survive the pandemic.”

The COVID-19 virus, commonly referred to as coronavirus, is being monitored very closely by the Navajo Area Indian Health Service and Navajo Nation Department of Health.