Pandemic rules shift but basics remain same

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 18/12/2020 (1899 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

If you’re single, a couple, or a family during these COVID-19 times — who can you visit, and who can visit you?

Perhaps no part of the pandemic public health orders have left so many people confused.

Many have taken to phone or computer keyboard to contact the Free Press, asking staff what the answer is, so we have to assume the Manitoba government has fielded the same calls.

The answer is simple: you’re not supposed to have any visitors, because Manitoba (and Canada and the world) is amidst a pandemic.

But, because during the weeks the province is under code red restrictions, there is a big difference between a couple at one residence being able to talk to each other, a family at another being able to play boardgames or help with school work, and a single person having no human contact.

The province is allowing those who live by themselves to visit at the residence of one other person who also lives by themselves, and vice versa.

You can buy laundry detergent, but how about fabric softener?

The province has a long list of essential and non-essential items that can be purchased — and not purchased — during the weeks under code red public health orders. (They can be found online here: manitoba.ca/asset_library/en/covid/covid-essential-retail-items.pdf.)

With a list such as this, it isn’t expected to contain every single retail item, just the main ones. A provincial spokesman admits the initial list didn’t have fabric softener, because it was thought just having “laundry-related items” would have sufficed.

Nope. More phone calls and emails — and now it is listed separately.

How about Christmas greeting cards? And, if I can buy them, how about a birthday or get-well card?

This is another category that was verboten when code red first came down last month. Christmas greeting cards were non-essential, with some stores covering the shelf space with plastic sheeting, tarps or yellow tape like at a police crime scene.

The province’s heart has since grown three sizes larger in the time since. Starting last weekend, seasonal items — including Christmas trees, decorations, wreaths, poinsettia plants, gift wrap, and, yes, cards (including birthday or get-well ones) — are OK to be sold. (A provincial spokesman notes it just says “greeting cards” in the public health orders.)

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca