Manitoba’s reopening is on track despite a slight uptick in COVID-19 cases, but officials are warning reopening plans could be put in jeopardy.
Three more cases of COVID-19 were reported in Manitoba June 22 - two over the weekend and a third Monday morning.
Manitoba chief provincial public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin announced the details behind six cases detected since their last testing update June 19, including the three new cases. None of the cases were found in the Northern Health Region.
Manitoba moved into the third phase of its provincial reopening plan June 21.
Roussin was especially concerned by a case in the Southern Health Region, where a person suffering from COVID-19 symptoms visited a diner in Blumenort. He added that the restaurant had physical distancing in place and the individual
“It's very rare to see cases like this,” Roussin said.
“Our best approach is not to have stigma or to blame. It's just to work together, try to find ways to encourage people to be considering others. We have these orders in place because sometimes, it's really our only resort.”
In the third provincial phase, general travel to the north is still not allowed by provincial health order, with exceptions for essential workers and those travelling directly to campgrounds and lodges.
“The [health] orders are right now to be going directly to those campsites and it's to have limited contact with other urban centres,” Roussin said.
“Like any of these public health orders, we continually review them to see what is necessary at this time. With the travel orders, we're again looking at our relatively low numbers and maybe looking to further loosen those in the near future.”
General travel from the north to southern Manitoba is still allowed and not recommended.
“We know that remote communities are very susceptible to a severe outbreak, should an infection like this be introduced,” Roussin said.
“We added that layer of protection to travel restrictions to the north to try to limit that introduction and over time, as we learn more about the virus, as we see our curve being relatively flat, we will loosen those as we see fit.”
Manitoba’s testing rate remains low, at 0.15 per cent over the last five days. Canada is around one per cent and Florida is around 20 per cent.
Roussin also announced one of the six cases was the first asymptomatic positive result Manitoba has detected. Nearly 5,000 asymptomatic people have been tested in Manitoba as part of provincial screening programs.
Earlier in the day, health minister Cameron Friesen announced personal care home indoor visits would begin with heavy restrictions.
