Province ‘accelerating’ plans to reopen

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This article was published 11/02/2022 (1499 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba is moving full steam ahead with its COVID-19 reopening strategy, with plans to transition the entire province from code orange (restricted) to yellow (caution) on Tuesday.

Proof of vaccine requirements will expire March 1 with masking mandates to follow on March 15, Premier Health Stefanson and Dr. Brent Roussin, the chief provincial public health officer, announced at a news conference Friday.

“Today we offer hope to those who have been waiting for a long time to see that light at the end of the tunnel,” Stefanson said.

“With key COVID indicators improving, we are pleased to announce that we are accelerating our plans to ease public health restrictions starting next week.”

The move to code yellow on the pandemic response system means close contacts who test positive for COVID will no longer be required to self-isolate.

Capacity limits will be outright eliminated for outdoor gatherings and indoor spaces such as restaurants, gyms, libraries, casinos, movie theatres and other entertainment venues.

Young people aged 12 to 17 participating in indoor sports and recreation will no longer be required to provide proof of vaccination or recent test results.

And medical masks will be recommended but no longer required for those who work at kindergarten to Grade 12 schools.

Friday’s news conference follows on the heels of similar announcements from Saskatchewan and Alberta government officials, who revealed earlier this week they would be ending vaccine passport programs as well as mask mandates in the coming weeks.

Manitoba officials have been discussing the relaxation of restrictions for the last few weeks, with the most recent round of public health orders coming into effect this past Tuesday.

Roussin endorsed the province’s aggressive reopening plan, saying it follows in tandem with modelling data that suggests the COVID numbers have “peaked” and are beginning to subside.

“This is an incremental plan and we’re going to continue to move that path from public health restrictions to public health recommendations,” Roussin said.

“We knew from the very first public health order that … these were always intended to be temporary. We knew that this pandemic would come to an end. We knew that the public health restrictions would come to an end and we are now on that path moving forward.”

The province released its modelling data to the public on Friday afternoon, showing that hospital and intensive care unit admissions dropped by 23.7 per cent and 24.4 per cent, respectively, from the previous week.

As of Friday afternoon, 656 Manitobans are still in the hospital due to COVID-19, with 41 patients being administered to the ICU.

During Friday’s news conference, Stefanson was asked multiple times if the province’s accelerated reopening plan is in response to the ongoing anti-mandate protests, which are calling for an end to all restrictions and orders related to COVID-19.

The premier denied that the growing “Freedom Convoy” movement swayed her administration’s latest decision, stating that they’ve been eyeing this kind of reopening for a while now.

“Dr. Roussin said weeks ago that we were looking at probably the spring where we would be removing all the restrictions, and that was before protestors were out in the front of the legislature,” she said.

“So we have been having these discussions for some time. We’ve been following the data … so now it’s time to safely move forward with the reduction of these restrictions.”

The announcement is about bringing “Manitobans back together again” and ending “the divisiveness between families, between communities,” Stefanson added.

“I think today is a good day for Manitoba, and I’m confident that we will have many more great days ahead of us,” she said.

However, not everyone is as optimistic about the province’s new reopening plan.

Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals president Bob Moroz told the Sun he is “deeply concerned” that the restrictions are being lifted prematurely and will negatively impact a health-care system that is already under massive strain.

“If it turns out that it was a mistake and the health system became inundated again the people who made the decision to lift these restrictions so early and so drastically need to be ashamed of themselves,” Moroz said.

The Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals is a union that represents approximately 6,500 members.

On the economic side, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business was pleased to hear that capacity restrictions were being lifted next week, since that move is endorsed by 71 per cent of the small business owners listed in their most recent survey.

However, CIFB leadership is urging the province to back up Friday’s announcement with a stay-open plan to provide clarity and certainty as the virus continues to circulate.

“This would include ensuring there is adequate healthcare capacity to avoid any renewed restrictions or business closures,” a CFIB representative wrote in a Friday afternoon statement.

Meanwhile, Manitoba NDP leader Wab Kinew took issue with the tone Stefanson struck during Friday’s news conference, viewing her ambiguous language as a capitulation to the “Freedom Convoy” protesters.

“I have to call out the fact that premier Stefanson went to great pains to refuse to say the obvious thing that needs to be said by a leader at this time; it is time for the convoy to go home,” Kinew told reporters inside the Manitoba Legislature.

Anti-mandate protests continued to take place in and around Winnipeg on Friday, with approximately 50 vehicles blocking the international border near the community of Emerson.

— with files from Drew May

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