Health orders extended by one week

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This article was published 28/01/2022 (1516 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

While Manitoba’s current COVID-19 public health orders were set to expire this coming Tuesday, the province announced Friday the measures will remain in place until at least Feb. 8.

This additional week in code orange (restricted) is needed to further assess the spread and impact of the omicron variant, according to Health Minister Audrey Gordon and chief provincial public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin.

“A week may not seem like a lot of time, but at the juncture we’re in, it’s going to provide us, likely, with significantly more information,” Roussin said during a Friday morning news conference.

The current public health orders first came into effect on Dec. 21, 2021, when the province was bracing for a spike in omicron cases over the holiday break. They affect public and private household gatherings as well as capacities within certain facilities.

While these measures didn’t prevent a massive spike in COVID cases, Roussin said Friday there are signs the omicron wave may have “peaked,” with hospital admissions due to COVID appearing to stabilize within the coming days.

“While we are seeing some key indicators [signalling] a peak, we need to remain cautious in our approach to the virus,” Roussin said in an accompanying press release. “COVID-19 continues to add stress to our health-care system and we need all Manitobans to get vaccinated, stay home when you are sick, get tested and self-isolate according to public health orders.”

Speaking to the public for the first time as the new health system co-lead for the provincial health incident command, Dr. David Matear reiterated this point by revealing that 110 Manitobans are currently in the ICU due to COVID and non-COVID related reasons.

This far exceeds Manitoba’s pre-pandemic baseline ICU capacity of 72 patients.

However, Matear said the province is continuing to recruit and train new staff to keep these ICUs running, with 23 health-care workers scheduled to complete their 12-week critical care nursing orientation program in the next few days.

“Upon graduation from this course, these nurses will assume positions in ICU sites in Winnipeg and Brandon, bolstering staffing supports in those units in the weeks ahead,” he said. “Another 30 nurses have signed up for the next 12-week class, which of course gets underway … on Feb. 7.”

Gordon told members of the public that next week Roussin and Premier Heather Stefanson will announce new public health orders, including “what I hope will be an outline to reopen the province.”

“This is not to say we’re out of the woods. Not at all,” the health minister said. “But there is light at the end of the tunnel.”

Friday also marked an additional shift in the province’s contact tracing strategy, with government officials no longer requiring daycares and early learning centres to notify close contacts of COVID cases.

This follows a similar announcement from Jan. 13 involving kindergarten to Grade 12 schools.

However, Roussin indicated during Friday’s news conference that these looser contact-tracing policies could be tightened in the future if omicron cases decline to a much more manageable level.

“If something should change, either the epidemiology or a change in the virus’ characteristics, then we’re always going to revisit,” he said. “But we’re always going to rely on effective measures going forward.”

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