Manitoba is set to gradually relax some of its public health restrictions in light of the COVID-19 situation in the province continuing to stabilize.
Manitoba’s premier, Heather Stefanson, announced the update to the province’s public health orders Wednesday afternoon, along with the province’s chief public health officer, Dr. Brent Roussin.
“Last week, we chose to extend public health orders to ensure the COVID-19 situation in Manitoba was stabilizing or improving, and we can see that continues to be the case,” said Stefanson.
“This means we can be confident in moving forward with the next phase in our pandemic response, which is a gradual and cautious reopening. New public health orders will reduce restrictions over the next two weeks for private gatherings and begin a shift in how we address capacity limits and how and when we gather in public spaces.”
The updated orders, which go into effect Feb. 8, will expand capacity at private gatherings, allowing for a household plus 25 others indoors, and 50 people in outdoor spaces, provided all are fully vaccinated.
In addition, sports and recreation tournaments will be allowed to resume, and liquor sales will be extended to midnight at licensed premises.
Roussin said the positive change of direction was due in part to Manitobans stepping up and doing their part to help keep the virus at bay.
“To be effective, public health orders should only be as restrictive as we need at the time,” he said.
“Manitobans have largely stepped up and followed these rules when it was critical in our pandemic response and also chose to get vaccinated, which has helped us to protect ourselves, each other and the capacity of our health-care system.
“The data and modelling show that we are stabilizing and may have in fact passed the peak we expected from omicron. The next few weeks will be critical as we monitor these trends and determine if it is appropriate to reduce additional restrictions over the longer term.”
The new orders will be in place until Feb. 21.
In addition, the province announced new supports Wednesday for struggling businesses as well as arts and cultural organizations who continue to be hit hard by the pandemic.
Manitoba’s Sector Support Program is expanding eligibility, as well as offering second payments to those eligible businesses who were affected by the health orders in place prior to Jan. 31.
The province said the program’s eligibility is also being expanded to include event rentals, catering and photographers, on top of businesses such as restaurants, hotels and bars that provide dine-in food services, fitness and recreation facilities, movie theatres, performance venues and museums.
An additional $6 million in funding is going toward the province’s Arts and Culture Sustainability Program to help out organizations in that sector as well.
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