Winkler area gets to reopen despite poor vaccination rates All Manitoba regions move to code orange Saturday
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This article was published 25/06/2021 (712 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Manitobans who live in one of the worst COVID-19 hot spots in Canada will be able to visit restaurants, salons and gyms because the Pallister government is lifting restrictions even in regions that have a low COVID-19 vaccine uptake.
“We want to make sure we stay a team and not start discriminating in certain areas because of, for some reason, the uptake isn’t quite the same,” Winkler Mayor Martin Harder said Friday.
He argued it would be unfair to hold back regions, given that Winkler had to enter code red last fall, despite having no new cases locally.
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“We’re in this together,” he said.
In his community, just 31.7 per cent of residents have had a first shot of a COVID-19 vaccine, compared with 70 per cent of Manitobans overall and 74.9 per cent in the Winnipeg Health region.
The province has met the first step of the province’s reopening plan, based on 70 per cent of eligible Manitobans with one dose, and 25 per cent with their second shot, regardless of regional differences.
The Southern Health region, which includes Winkler, reported just 53.7 per cent vaccine uptake, meaning eligible people with one shot, as of Friday.
“We want to make sure we stay a team and not start discriminating in certain areas because of, for some reason, the uptake isn’t quite the same.”
– Winkler Mayor Martin Harder
When asked why areas with low vaccine uptake are allowed to reopen as of Saturday, deputy chief provincial public health officer Dr. Jazz Atwal said singling out a region has “unintended consequences.”
He noted that regions might have low vaccine uptake due to limited access to shots or hesitancy toward vaccines.
“Manitoba collectively has done well with vaccine uptake and we’re going to continue to see those numbers improve,” Atwal said Friday.
He said that even though Manitobans are in ICU wards in other provinces, case numbers have been declining and the test positivity rate is trending downward.
“It was felt that we could open up the restrictions and not have regional differences,” Atwal said.
That’s in line with western provinces, which have planned a reopening for all regions regardless of case rates and vaccine uptake. Ontario and Quebec place regions in different reopening phases based on case rates.
In August 2020, the province moved Brandon and the surrounding Prairie Mountain Health region to orange (restricted) from yellow (caution) due to rising case numbers. Gathering sizes were limited and face masks were mandatory in public.
Three months later, after cases exploded and the second wave began, the province designated all areas of Manitoba at the same pandemic response level. It argued different restriction levels would encourage people to travel to areas with fewer rules.
“It was felt that we could open up the restrictions and not have regional differences.”
– Dr. Jazz Atwal
“We know there are unintended consequences with those regional differences. We’ve experienced those with previous restrictions,” Atwal said Friday.
However, the province has restricted non-essential travel to the north since early December.
As of Saturday, all of Manitoba will no longer be in code red for the first time since mid-November, moving to orange on the four-tier colour-coded system.
That includes the Southern Health region, where vaccine uptake ranges from a low of 17.5 per cent in the health district of Stanley — which surrounds Morden and Winkler — to 67 per cent in the St. Pierre/DeSalaberry district.
Justice Minister Cameron Friesen, who represents Morden-Winkler, would not acknowledge the area’s low vaccination rate when asked about restrictions Friday, instead noting uptake has improved in recent weeks.
“There has been an awful lot of hard work; I want to especially commend the local community and public health for forming the types of partnerships that are getting pop-up vaccine clinics all around our community,” he said.
Friesen claimed public health officials set the rules on restrictions. In fact, public health officials advise the provincial cabinet, which has the final decision on restrictions.
That is the case in most jurisdictions in Canada, although Ontario has an independent science advisory table which warned the public in advance about government policies that ended up causing explosive COVID-19 case growth.
dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca
carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca
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Carol Sanders
Legislature reporter
After 20 years of reporting on the growing diversity of people calling Manitoba home, Carol moved to the legislature bureau in early 2020.
