It’s back - or is it?
A new positive case of COVID-19 found within the Northern Health Region (NHR) was reported over the weekend, possibly within the Flin Flon/Snow Lake/Cranberry Portage/Sherridon region, but provincial health data now lists the person as being from an “unknown district” within the NHR as of Sept. 7.
A new case of the disease was reported Sept. 6, allegedly in a person living in the health district containing Flin Flon. If true, it would be the first new case of COVID-19 in the area in more than five months.
On Sept. 7, the active case in the Flin Flon district was removed from the province’s official public case dashboard, replaced instead with one active case marked as “unknown district.” No active cases in the Flin Flon district are listed as of Sept. 7.
The next day, the City of Flin Flon issued a statement online saying the case was found in the Flin Flon district and urging caution for the public.
“Public health nurses and staff are already conducting extensive contact tracing and monitoring. The City of Flin Flon is working closely with the NHR and appropriate community partners to ensure we are all working to contain this event,” reads the statement.
A cause of the infection or possible transmission sites are unknown.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, five cases have been reported in the Northern Health Region (NHR) – two in the Thompson area, one in the Flin Flon area, one in the Gillam/Fox Lake Cree Nation area and the new unknown region case. No hospitalizations have been reported. The case reported Sept. 6 is the only active case in the region. At one point, northern Manitoba had gone nearly five months without a single COVID-19 case.
In order for a case to be counted in the district, the person who had tested positive for the disease must be a resident of the district - for example, if a person from Winnipeg came north and then tested positive, their case would be considered a Winnipeg-area case.
Restrictions on travel into northern Manitoba went into effect Sept. 4.
