Northern numbers climb in wake of holiday season

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This article was published 16/01/2021 (2068 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

As Manitoba ponders loosening its pandemic restrictions, public health officials are watching infection rates surge in the North.

Northern Manitoba has one of the highest numbers of COVID-19 cases linked to recent holiday season gatherings, second only to Winnipeg, provincial data show. Test positivity rates in the region have spiked, and boasted nearly half of the province’s total daily new case count Friday (84 of 191).

It is “definitely a concern,” said Dr. Brent Roussin, chief provincial public health officer, during a Friday news conference with Premier Brian Pallister.

The premier said he wants public input on gradually loosening the provincewide code red restrictions that have been in place for two months.

Asked if the North will have to remain in code red even as other regions open up, Roussin said no decisions have been made — but regional tailoring of public health orders hasn’t been ruled out.

“It’s definitely on the table,” he said.

Officials have been waiting on the post-holiday case count data before making any changes to public health orders currently in effect until Jan. 22.

In response to a Free Press inquiry, a provincial spokesperson provided a regional breakdown of cases that have been traced back to holiday gatherings (which are banned, along with most other household visits under the current rules).

As of Friday, 659 Manitobans had tested positive for COVID-19 linked to holiday gatherings, producing a total of 3,633 close contacts. Most of those gatherings were in the Winnipeg, Northern Health and Prairie Mountain regions.

In the North, with many communities suffering from a lack of proper housing, holiday gatherings led to 118 known positive cases and 885 contacts.

A total 27 northern Manitobans have died of COVID-19, including a man in his 70s, whose death was announced Friday.

The northern communities with the highest active case counts are in the Island Lakes and Shamattawa/York Factory/Split Lake regional health districts, according to provincial data.

In Shamattawa, 52-year-old Ernie Redhead said he’s been mostly staying home, watching the news. Case counts are creeping up even though it seems like people in the community are wearing masks and properly physically distancing, he said.

“It’s pretty scary,” Redhead said, speaking to the Free Press by phone while making a drop-off at the gas bar Friday afternoon in the remote community of about 1,000.

“I’m scared for my grandchildren; not for my sake, but for my grandchildren’s sake. It’s pretty freaky, actually,” he said.

“Where does the fear come from? I don’t know, the rumours, people that you see dying on TV, increase of beds, the hospital beds.”

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @thatkatiemay