COVID-19 has claimed the lives of another 11 Manitobans and health officials say another 111 people have fallen ill to the virus.
Manitoba’s chief public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin reported the latest numbers at a Tuesday press conference held shortly after the government announced it is considering allowing more store openings and social gatherings under its COVID-19 public-health orders.
“The actions and hard work and sacrifices of Manitobans has continued to make a difference — overall our numbers are headed in a good direction,” Roussin said at the media briefing.
“This means that we can start looking at what reopening might look like.”
One change being considered by the government would allow non-essential stores reopen with capacity limits.
Another would allow barber shops, hair salons, podiatrists and other health services to resume operations.
The province is also looking at easing a ban on most home gatherings, allowing two visitors inside and up to five visitors on outdoor private property.
But Roussin said the changes would likely only be made in southern and central Manitoba, because case numbers remain high in the northern health region.
Of the new cases reported Tuesday 33 were reported in the north. The remaining new cases include 52 from the Winnipeg Health region, six in the Southern Health region, eight from the Prairie Mountain Health region, and 12 in the Interlake-Eastern Health region.
The latest deaths bring Manitoba’s total number of deaths to 783 after health officials say a previously reported death has been removed due to a data correction.
Manitoba has now reported 27,740 cases of COVID-19 since March.
The province’s latest COVID-19 victims include:
- a woman in her 50s from the Interlake–Eastern health region;
- a man in his 80s from the Prairie Mountain Health region, linked to the outbreak at the McCreary/Alonsa Health Centre;
- a man in his 80s from the Southern Health–Santé Sud health region;
- a man in his 90s from the Southern Health–Santé Sud health region, linked to the outbreak at Heritage Life Personal Care Home;
- a man in his 50s from the Winnipeg health region;
- a man in his 60s from the Winnipeg health region, linked to the outbreak at the Southeast Personal Care Home;
- a man in his 70s from the Winnipeg health region;
- a woman in her 80s from the Winnipeg health region, linked to the outbreak at Deer Lodge Centre, Lodge 4 West;
- a man in his 90s from the Winnipeg health region, linked to the outbreak at the Concordia Place;
- a man in his 90s from the Winnipeg health region; and
- a woman in her 90s from the Winnipeg health region.
As of Tuesday morning health officials said there are 131 people in hospital with active COVID-19 as well as 148 who are no longer infectious but continue to require care, for a total of 279 hospitalizations.
There are 25 people in intensive care units with active COVID-19 as well as 12 who are no longer infectious but continue to require critical care for a total of 37 ICU patients.
Laboratory testing numbers show 1,462 tests were completed Monday, bringing the total number of lab tests completed since early February 2020 to 454,951.
The current five-day COVID-19 test positivity rate is 9.9 per cent provincially and 7.4 per cent in Winnipeg.
A new outbreak was reported Tuesday at at Donwood Manor in Winnipeg, while outbreaks have ended at St. Paul’s Personal Care Home in The Pas, Fernwood Place in Steinbach, Greendale Estate Assisted Living in Grunthal, and Deer Lodge Centre Lodge 2 West and Health Science Centre unit WRS3, both in Winnipeg.
The province’s current set of public health orders, which includes tight restrictions on non-essential store openings and public gatherings, have been in place since mid-November and are set to expire Friday.
The government put up an online survey last week to ask people what rules they would like to see eased.
At the time Roussin said the public health orders saved roughly 1,700 lives since November, based on modelling at the time.
Roussin said a decision on what the final public health orders will look like will be announced later this week.
–With files from The Canadian Press
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. In some provinces and municipalities across the country, masks or face coverings are now mandatory in indoor public spaces.
For full COVID-19 coverage from Global News, click here.
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