Manitoba marks 18 more COVID-19 deaths, 280 new cases

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This article was published 09/12/2020 (1931 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Wednesday marked Manitoba’s second-deadliest day of the COVID-19 pandemic, with 18 fatalities reported.

“Our case numbers are still too high, our hospitalizations and ICU numbers are too high. We need to decrease the number of contacts we have, and the best way to do that is to stay home as much as possible,” chief provincial public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin said during a media briefing.

The province’s total number of pandemic deaths climbing to 438.

Wednesday’s number includes, from Winnipeg: a man in his 40s; a woman in her 50s; a woman in her 50s linked to an outbreak at the Health Sciences Centre; a woman in her 60s; a man in his 70s; a woman in her 70s; a woman in her 70s linked to an outbreak at Victoria General Hospital; a man in his 80s linked to the outbreak at Maples care home; a man in his 80s and a woman in her 90s linked to the outbreak at Park Manor care home; a woman in her 80s linked to an outbreak at Misericordia Health Centre; a woman in her 80s linked to the outbreak at St. Norbert care home; a woman in her 90s linked to the outbreak at Charleswood Care Centre; and a man in his 90s linked to the outbreak at Holy Family care home.

Southern Health reported a man in his 60s, a woman in her 70s, and a man in his 80s, had died from COVID-19.

Prairie Mountain Health reported the pandemic death of a woman in her 80s linked to the outbreak at Grandview care home.

The province announced 280 new cases of COVID-19, and a five-day test positivity rate of 13.5 per cent provincially (14.5 per cent in Winnipeg). On Tuesday, just 1,862 tests were processed at local laboratories.

Winnipeg led the new case counts with 193 infections, Interlake-Eastern reported 27 cases, Northern Health had 19, Prairie Mountain had 15, and Southern Health had 26.

Figures released by the Manitoba First Nations COVID-19 Pandemic Response Coordination Team showed 31 per cent of new infections (87) were in people identifying as First Nations. Meanwhile, 29 per cent of current hospitalizations and 45 per cent of patients in intensive care identify as First Nations.

Three-hundred people were in hospital with active COVID-19 infections Wednesday, including 38 in intensive care.

According to the province, there are 5,348 active cases of the disease and 13,869 people have recovered.

Health Minister Cameron Friesen said Wednesday the provincial government will reimburse personal care home operators $7.7 million spent to cover extra expenses related to the COVID-19 pandemic. There are 125 licensed personal care homes in Manitoba.

Outbreaks at such facilities have contributed to the deaths of at least 206 seniors and residents in long-term care.

The payment comes after a review by regional health authorities. Eligible costs included additional staffing and enhanced cleaning procedures. The $7.7 million is intended to cover the first half of the 2020-21 fiscal year, which began April 1.

“This isn’t so much an announcement as a confession,” Manitoba Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont said. “The Pallister government waited until we were a month into code red and hundreds of people have died of COVID-19 before flowing funds to reimburse personal care homes.

“In August — when second-wave cases were already starting to rise — the Long Term & Continuing Care Association of Manitoba was pleading for financial assistance,” Lamont said. “The PCs and WRHA had issued directives, but provided no financial help to cover them.”

Opposition NDP Leader Wab Kinew said long-term care homes have paid a “terrible price,” due to the Pallister government’s “failure to prepare for a second wave of this virus.”

“This funding — which works out to a meagre $50,000 per facility — is an indictment of just how little the PCs invested in care homes for staffing and (personal protective equipment) between March and September,” Kinew said.

“We saw in October and November the terrible toll that lack of preparation exacted on our seniors. Our loved ones deserve better from this government.”

According to the province, the COVID-19 outbreak at Headingley Correctional Centre was erroneously declared over Tuesday. The outbreak is ongoing but there have been no new cases reported, officials said. The provincial jail has been moved from critical red on the pandemic response scale to restricted orange.

Outbreaks on Unit 4 South at Grace Hospital and Unit GH3 at HSC have ended, the province reported.

— with files from Kevin Rollason

danielle.dasilva@freepress.mb.ca