Manitoba will see some slight changes to provincial health orders for outdoor gatherings, retail capacity and other fronts later this week.
Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister and provincial chief public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin announced the changes in a March 23 media conference, explaining what moves were made and what moves were not. The changes to health orders will go into effect March 26, starting at 12:01 a.m. and will expire April 15, when they will almost certainly be replaced with similar orders with slight tweaks.
Only a small number of restriction changes that had been previously floated by health officials were confirmed to be going into effect. Capacity limits for outdoor gatherings at public places have been raised to 25, up from 10. Weddings and funerals will see similar changes, with limits also going up to 25 from the previous 10 people maximum.
Capacity limits for retail stores will remain capped at 50 per cent, but in-store limits can be expanded to a capacity of 500 people. Stores will need to follow whichever limit is lower.
Rules for drive-in events have also been relaxed - people at drive-in events can now leave their vehicles as long as other public health measures are maintained.
Other possible changes first mentioned last week were not part of the full announcement March 23. In a March 18 news conference, the province also proposed expanding in-person dining rules at restaurants, allowing some organized indoor team sports, allowing concert halls and performance spaces to reopen and removing two-week isolation requirements for people travelling to Manitoba for essential purposes. None of those restrictions were part of the changes mentioned March 23.
The province also did not drop down from "red" on the provincial pandemic response system to an "orange" rating, indicating that Manitobans who took part in an engageMB.ca online survey, as well as health officials, did not approve of the switch.
"We still need to be cautious with our approach. We see recent slow increases in case numbers. We're seeing an increasing proportion of our cases related to variants of concern. We're continuing to monitor closely our hospitalization data, as well as those case numbers related to variants of concern," said Roussin, who added that gathering limits for homes were not changed as they are still seen as a possible COVID-19 transmission risk.
"We haven't made changes to indoor or outdoor gatherings at personal residences. We know that prolonged contact had been a significant factor in the beginning of our second wave. We will being to look at further reopening steps after spring break and Passover and Easter as our data supports. We all have continue to work together to keep these numbers down."
Roussin said the changes are part of a move back to "normal" for Manitobans, but that "normal" is not yet in place.
"There continues to be reasons to be optimistic, but we need to be cautious in the meantime," said the doctor.
"We don't have nearly the vaccination coverage that we need to change our public health measures, but we can be optimistic that more and more vaccine is on its way over time. We just need to be cautious for the near future."
