New Manitoba health orders add restrictions, vaccine criteria loosened, northern cases drop

A series of health order changes were announced for Manitoba April 19, restricting gatherings in churches, homes and stores.

The restrictions were announced in a press conference with Premier Brian Pallister and Manitoba chief provincial public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin, with the pair saying that restrictions would be raised because of higher case rates in neighbouring provinces and in some parts of Manitoba.

“We don’t want to go back to where we were before, obviously. We know that the days of COVID-19 beating us were hard days for all of us. Most certainly, we don't want to go back to COVID-19 beating us,” said Pallister.

“Despite our best collective efforts, however, COVID-19 is on the rise again due to, in large part, the new variants of concern. Our cases are rising. Our test positivity numbers are rising. Hospitalization numbers are beginning to go back up. We've been in this situation last year and we know that we don't want it to be recreated now.”

According to the health orders - which go into effect April 20 - households will only be allowed to have two designated visitors for indoor gatherings and outdoor gatherings, both public and private, must be limited to 10 people or less, including family and household members. Churches and worship services will have a cap of 25 per cent capacity or 50 people - whichever is lower - with mask orders in place, with exceptions for household groups seated together and distanced from others during services.

Groups for weddings and funerals have been shrunk down to 10 people, along with an officiant and photographer.

Another health order will go into effect April 21, specifically for retail stores - starting Wednesday, all stores or retail operations will be limited to 33 per cent capacity, or for large-scale stores, a cap of 333 patrons - whichever is lower. Malls will also be limited to 33 per cent capacity.

The new orders will be in effect until May 12, when they may be reevaluated or renewed.

Roussin said certain key indicators helped dictate where the province would go next.

“We've been monitoring our numbers and epidemiology over the last number of weeks. We've seen some concerning trends. Our contact tracers are reporting that cases are having a growing number of contacts. There are reporting individuals holding larger group gatherings, both indoors and outdoors - house parties, playdates, sleepovers, including people from other household households,” said Roussin.

“We've seen clusters linked to large funerals and other gatherings, we're seeing more cases linked to long term care homes and schools and we've seen at least one cluster linked to spring break travel. Our test positivity rate has been consistently climbing.”

Vaccines

Meanwhile, more Manitobans are now eligible to get a COVID-19 vaccine.

Eligibility requirements for the AstraZeneca vaccine dropped down to include everyone 40 years of age and older April 19, based on expanded guidelines from the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI).

Minimum ages for other vaccines dropped as well, but saw more modest declines. As of April 19, non-First Nations Manitobans 54 years and older and First Nations people ages 34 and over can make appointments for a dose at a pop-up site or supersite.

Cases

Surprisingly for a day when the province announced new restrictions, northern Manitoba reported one of its best days in months for overall COVID-19 cases April 19. Only five new cases of the disease were reported around northern Manitoba, the lowest number of new cases in the region since January 3. One new case was reported in the Flin Flon/Snow Lake/Cranberry Portage/Sherridon health district, bringing the district up to 13 active cases. The district had been at as high as 20 active cases last week.

Three new cases were reported in the remote Island Lake district, which is home to nearly half of the NHR’s 707 active cases as of April 19 - 346 people are listed as active cases in the district, which has reported more than 1,600 COVID-19 infections during the pandemic.

Throughout Manitoba, 108 new cases of COVID-19 were found, with 63 of those cases found in Winnipeg. No new deaths from COVID-19 were reported. As of April 19, 132 people were in Manitoba hospitals due to COVID-19, with 30 of those people in intensive care. 

No new outbreaks or public exposures were reported within the NHR April 19.

Saskatchewan

Variants of concern continue to climb in Saskatchewan, while the far north east has been mostly untouched.

The province announced another 243 new COVID-19 cases, more than half of which were found in Saskatchewan’s two main cities - 82 in Regina and 47 in Saskatoon. No new cases were reported in the far north east health zone, which has 20 remaining active cases - eight of which are in the far north east 2 health zone, which covers Creighton, Denare Beach, Pelican Narrows, Sandy Bay and other area communities.

Over 4,800 COVID-19 cases in Saskatchewan have been confirmed by screening to be variant cases, including nearly 3,000 in Regina alone.