Manitoba marks 89 new COVID-19 cases, three more deaths

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This article was published 01/02/2021 (1712 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

New COVID-19 infections continued to trend downward in the Winnipeg region, but it remains too soon to say whether relaxed public health restrictions may cause the curve to again change direction.

Chief provincial public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin reported 89 new infections Monday in Manitoba; just 18 in the capital.

“It’s early, as far as public health numbers go,” Roussin said at a media briefing. “We’re going to be watching that very closely this week and into next week, for sure.

“But overall, I think that the reports are that people are still sticking to the fundamentals, they’re following the restrictions,” he said. “I think it’s been some challenging times, and if we can continue the progress that we’re seeing, then we’re hoping to again further the loosening (of pandemic restrictions) as we go forward.”

Most of the new infections reported Monday stemmed from the Northern Health region (42). There were 22 new cases in Interlake-Eastern, four in Southern Health, and three in Prairie Mountain.

Across the province, five-day test-positivity rates continued to hover below eight per cent — notching up slightly to 7.9 per cent; Winnipeg had a test-positivity rate of 4.2 per cent. Provincial labs completed 1,603 tests Sunday.

On Monday, the province reported three more Manitoba seniors had died owing to COVID-19: a man in his 70s and man in his 80s from Southern Health, and a woman in her 80s from Winnipeg.

A total of 832 Manitobans have died from COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic.

As of Tuesday, retailers in the hard-hit Northern Health region will once again be able to sell non-essential goods, in an effort to stop the spread of the virus from northern communities into Winnipeg.

Roussin said public health has decided to ease those shopping restrictions, after seeing a “significant” number of people travelling from the north into Winnipeg — select retailers and malls in the capital had lengthy queues and crowds of shoppers over the weekend — and other retail hubs below the 53rd parallel.

Other restrictions for the north, barring personal services such as hair salons and household gatherings, remain in place.

Seeing people move between different restriction levels “has raised some caution” toward using targeted, regional approaches, Roussin said.

“We definitely do not want to see that intraprovince travel, again, certainly not for non-essential items.”

The province’s top doctor said public health officials are keeping a close eye on how shopping centres are managing crowds, and are prepared to respond should case counts increase as more people venture outside their household.

Roussin said there have been improvements to every aspect of the public health response system since the early fall, when Winnipeg was reporting a comparable number of infections, but contact tracing ultimately was overwhelmed. Testing capacity and capabilities have increased and isolation accommodations have been expanded, he said.

“We have also increased our ability to contact trace. So we would be able to keep up with cases.”

Roussin stressed the need to continue getting tested, even for mild symptoms, and to follow the fundamentals, as the province proceeds with its reopening plan.

Next week, the province is expected to provide the public with a slate of potential services that could be restored ahead of the current public health order expiring Feb. 12.

With new daily infections on the decline, Shared Health chief nursing officer Lanette Siragusa said hospitalizations are stabilizing and have returned to mid-November levels.

On Monday, 255 people were in hospital being treated for COVID-19 (lowest since Nov. 18) and 38 in intensive care (of all COVID-19 admissions, 104 were active infections). The province’s intensive care units continue to be extended beyond the pre-pandemic capacity of 72 beds, with 102 total admissions as of Monday morning.

“These numbers represent considerable progress from nearly two months ago, when we peaked at 388 hospitalizations and 120 patients in the ICU,” Siragusa said.

In acute care, there are currently five outbreaks at four hospitals, with a total of 13 active cases. Twenty-six personal care homes in Manitoba have active outbreaks, and 22 have one or fewer active cases; there are a total of 50 active cases among PCH residents and staff.

Non-urgent and elective surgeries and procedures are also beginning to slowly and cautiously resume, Siragusa said, adding the province is developing a strategy to address the backlog.

Roussin said the province continues to send positive COVID-19 swabs to be screened for variants of concern, and is working on a plan to increase the number of samples sent for genomic sequencing. As of Monday, no such variants had been detected in the province.

An outbreak has been declared at Actionmarguerite St. Joseph care home in Winnipeg. An outbreak at Actionmarguerite St. Vital in Winnipeg has been declared over.

— with files from Julia-Simone Rutgers

danielle.dasilva@freepress.mb.ca