Manitoba reports 11 more deaths, 400 new COVID-19 cases

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This article was published 18/11/2020 (1960 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Almost a week after all of Manitoba moved to code-red restrictions to beat back the spike in COVID-19 cases, the province reported that 11 more people had died from the virus and 400 others had contracted it.

“I think our message needs to remain clear: our numbers are going in the wrong direction, we cannot sustain these numbers in our health-care system,” chief provincial public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin said at a news conference Wednesday.

“Stay home and socialize only with members of your household, leaving your house only for essential reasons.”

The deaths include a woman in her 90s and two men in their 80s connected to the Golden Links Lodge outbreak in Winnipeg; a man in his 60s and a man in his 90s from the Winnipeg health region; a woman in her 50s and two men in their 80s from Southern Health; a woman in her 80s from Prairie Mountain; and two men in their 70s from Interlake-Eastern.

The active case count stood at 7,385, meaning 12,007 cases have been identified since the onset of the pandemic. The new cases are primarily in Winnipeg (239), followed by Southern Health (93), Northern Health (40), Interlake-Eastern (20), and Prairie Mountain (eight). The five-day COVID-19 test positivity rate was 14.2 per cent provincially; 13.8 per cent in Winnipeg.

Community-based transmission continues to drive the current wave of the pandemic, Roussin said.

“We’ve had well over 500 cases in the last seven days that are just community-based transmission, meaning we can’t link them to anything, and you can see that test positivity rate is over 13 per cent,” he said.

On Wednesday, 249 people were hospitalized with COVID-19, including 40 in intensive care. Since March, 190 Manitobans have died from the disease.

Roussin cautioned Manitobans against non-essential shopping trips, including in-person Black Friday sales. He reiterated his message to stay home unless absolutely necessary. He noted tightened public health orders can be expected ahead of the weekend and that those businesses that remain open must enforce strict capacity limits.

“We’re looking at ways of perhaps having the orders even more clear on to what exactly is critical and what should be sold. So we are reviewing some options,” Roussin said.

The province said enforcement officers have the power to write a ticket for $298 to anyone who refuses to wear a face mask in indoor public places. The new citation can be issued by Winnipeg police, bylaw officers, RCMP, and G4S security guards.

Roussin said medical exemptions for mask wearing as listed in the public health order still apply. Those include breathing or cognitive difficulties or a disability that prevents someone from safely wearing a mask, and people who are unable to put on or remove a mask without help from another person.

“There will be a reasonable expectation that a person can demonstrate that they require an exemption,” Roussin said.

All other fines for individuals related to public health orders remain at $1,296.

Roussin said businesses who have received calls from someone claiming to be him, asking them to close, should be aware it is a hoax, and should contact public health if they require further information.

The top doctor also noted the province is preparing to receive a COVID-19 vaccine when it becomes available.

“We’re definitely planning to receive vaccine as early as January, that’s the plan,” Roussin said. “We don’t know when or how much we’re going to receive, but we are planning as if we did receive it there, we’d be definitely ready.”

He said a vaccine should be looked at with optimism but cautioned it won’t be a quick fix because its quantity will be limited.

“We’re working with our federal partners and a special advisory committee to find those priority groups on who would be eligible. We’re looking at where we’re going to receive the samples in different regions and how we’d get it to the initial, high-risk people,” Roussin said.

Meanwhile, Shared Health chief nursing officer Lanette Siragusa said the health-care system “continues to expand” to meet the huge demand for COVID-19 hospitalizations.

On Wednesday, 88 of the 102 ICU beds in the province were occupied. Approximately half of ICU patients had COVID-19, Siragusa said, and half were on ventilators.

Siragusa announced an outbreak had been declared at Health Sciences Centre GH3 and GA4 units, which have been moved to critical (red) on the pandemic response system.

julia-simone.rutgers@freepress.mb.ca

danielle.dasilva@freepress.mb.ca