Manitoba stops reporting possible virus exposures at businesses

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This article was published 18/11/2020 (2011 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The province has stopped reporting public exposures of COVID-19 at Manitoba businesses because it argues cases are too widespread for such lists to be effective.

Chief provincial health officer Dr. Brent Roussin said reporting public exposures at private businesses — a common practice in the summer and early fall — could create a “false sense of security” for Manitobans now that community spread has become difficult to trace.

“A… large proportion of our cases now we can’t link to anything,” Roussin said Tuesday.

“So we could announce some of these type of things but the vast majority of them we’re not finding where they’re linked to. So the big messaging is to stay home, to be out in these places as little as possible.”

Roussin argued that updating the list of businesses with potential exposures could give some people the impression that unlisted businesses were “somehow safe to go.”

The province continues to provide updates on provincial facilities, health-care facilities, long-term care homes, schools, city buses and flights.

“A… large proportion of our cases now we can’t link to anything.” –Dr. Brent Roussin

Some major private corporations have taken COVID exposure reporting into their own hands.

On its corporate website, Sobeys, which owns Safeway and Sobeys grocery stores, announced 12 employees in its Winnipeg stores had contracted the virus in as many days.

Similarly, fast-food companies such as McDonald’s and A&W have released statements when employees test positive for the virus.

The City of Winnipeg told the Free Press its public exposure list, which is updated daily at 4 p.m., is sourced directly from exposures announced by the province. The city is responsible for publicizing exposures on city vehicles or at city facilities.

An anonymous parent in Manitoba has also taken contact tracing into their own hands. The parent compiles crowd-sourced spreadsheet to track exposures in schools through notification letters, and has launched a Twitter account (ManitobaSchoolCovidExposures) to keep families informed. To date, the spreadsheet lists 642 cases at 271 schools in the province, including 178 Winnipeg schools.

While schools often independently alert families when a case has been reported among staff or students, a representative of the Winnipeg School Division said they could not answer Free Press questions about exposures, stating those were questions for Manitoba Health.

Winnipeg epidemiologist Cynthia Carr agrees with the province’s logic. She said that, for the most part, the public can’t rely on exposure lists to provide all the information they need to avoid the risk of exposure.

“At this point, other than very specific exposure whether it be in the interior of an aircraft, a health system, a school or a long-term care facility where there’s more risk potentially involved or at least an ability to know the specifics, it’s just not a solution,” Carr said.

Carr recommends Manitobans, who want to know if they’ve been exposed to a case, use the COVID Alert app, which notifies users if they have been in close contact with a positive case.

“In terms of being alerted in every possibility or eventuality, the COVID alert app at this point in time would be much more optimal over trying to keep putting together lists,” she said.

“People also, frankly, don’t know where to look: where do I find that information, who’s participating, who isn’t participating? I think that’s just not something that’s sustainable and I don’t know how useful some of that was in terms of completeness of information.”

—with files from Danielle DaSilva

julia-simone.rutgers@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @jsrutgers