Coronavirus: Northern Manitoba travel restrictions lifted as two new cases reported

Health officials in Manitoba reported two new cases of COVID-19 Friday.

The case bring Manitoba’s total number of probable and positive cases reported since March to 318.

The new cases are a man in his 30s that is travel related, and a woman in her 50s who is a contact of a previous case, said provincial health officials. Both are from Winnipeg.

As of Friday morning, no one was in hospital or intensive care with the virus, and health officials say there are currently 11 active cases and 300 people have recovered.

Seven Manitobans have died from COVID-19 since March.

An additional 1,412 laboratory tests were performed on Wednesday (477) and Thursday (935). This brings the total number of tests performed since early February to 60,775.

New public health orders

The province issued new public health orders Friday, and they removed restrictions to allow people to travel to or from northern Manitoba and remote communities.

The new orders also:

• remove the requirement for people coming to Manitoba to work on film productions to self-isolate for 14 days before entering the province;
• clarify the only sports teams exempt from self-isolation requirements are professional sports teams from Manitoba and remove the requirement for Manitoba sports teams to self-isolate for 14 days before returning to Manitoba; and
• permit individuals who are self-isolating under federal or provincial health orders to visit a family member or friend who has a life-threatening disease in a health-care facility, if the facility permits them to do so and they are not displaying symptoms of COVID-19.

1:26 Coronavirus: Manitoba to enter reopening Phase 3 on June 21

Questions about COVID-19? Here are some things you need to know:

Symptoms can include fever, cough and difficulty breathing — very similar to a cold or flu. Some people can develop a more severe illness. People most at risk of this include older adults and people with severe chronic medical conditions like heart, lung or kidney disease. If you develop symptoms, contact public health authorities.

To prevent the virus from spreading, experts recommend frequent handwashing and coughing into your sleeve. They also recommend minimizing contact with others, staying home as much as possible and maintaining a distance of two metres from other people if you go out. In situations where you can’t keep a safe distance from others, public health officials recommend the use of a non-medical face mask or covering to prevent spreading the respiratory droplets that can carry the virus.

For full COVID-19 coverage from Global News, click here.