Province lifts some restrictions, northern Manitoba unchanged as officials cite high cases

The Manitoba government confirmed some restrictions will change for retail, gatherings and elsewhere this weekend. However, northern Manitoba will see no changes.

The province announced the changes in the Jan. 21 media briefing on COVID-19. Premier Brian Pallister announced the changes, saying they were a sign of optimism but not of outright victory over COVID-19.

"These are cautious changes. They are changes we are making to ensure that we can continue to protect and safeguard Manitoba lives. Today is a day of hope. It's a day of optimism, because unlike every other jurisdiction in North America, Manitobans have managed to bend the COVID-19 curve," said Pallister.

"It is also a day to realize that, as we are able to do this, it will only be sustainable for us if we continue to do our duty and we continue to do the right things - then we will earn the chance to have more days like this as we move forward. We earned this day and Manitobans now have the opportunity to earn more days like it in the future."

For residents in the Winnipeg, Southern Health-Sante Sud, Prairie Mountain Health and Interlake-Eastern Regional Health Authority regions, restrictions will be eased to allow for two designated people to visit a household, allowing outdoor visits of up to five people plus a household on private property, eliminating the essential items list and allowing non-regulated health services and hairstylists to reopen with restrictions. The changes will go into effect as of Jan. 23.

For the Northern Health Region (and Churchill, which is covered by the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority), current restrictions will remain in place for the near future due to high case counts and test positivity rates.

"Because of the current case counts and test positivity in northern Manitoba and on many First Nations, we're going to not have these loosening of the restrictions apply to the north, including Churchill," said Manitoba chief provincial public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin.

Case counts remain high in several remote communities, including Red Sucker Lake, Garden Hill, Shamattawa, Lynn Lake and Oxford House, but cases in larger communities in northern Manitoba, including Flin Flon, remain well over the provincial average. The NHR accounts for almost half of Manitoba's active COVID-19 cases as of Jan. 21 and out of all Manitoba communities with more than 4,000 people, the four such communities in the NHR - The Pas, Norway House, Thompson and Flin Flon - have the highest per-capita COVID-19 active cases.

The Pas/OCN/Kelsey has the highest per-capita case count of any community over 4,000 people as of Jan. 21, reporting 1,304 cases per 100,000 people - by contrast, the provincial average is 88 cases per 100,000 people. Norway House has 751 cases per 100,000 people, while Thompson has 570 cases per 100,000 people. The Flin Flon district, as of Jan. 21, has 401 cases per 100,000 people. No other community over 4,000 people in Manitoba has more than 300 cases per 100,000 people.

In a survey introduced by the provincial government earlier on proposed reopening plans this month at engagemb.ca, 62 per cent of the over 35,000 responders agreed with lifting limits on household visits to two people and about 73 per cent of respondents agreed with reopening hairstylists and barbershops.

Roussin urged the need for a gradual reopening, saying that lifting restrictions too quickly would put people at risk.

"This has to be a gradual and cautious process. We do not want to be opening and then closing, then reopening again. Everyone's aware of the challenges these restrictions have caused Manitobans, but we just cannot overwhelm our health care system. We cannot continue to lose so many Manitobans, at the trajectory that we were on in October and November," said Roussin.

"Businesses and facilities that are not permitted to open at this stage, this is not meant in any way as a punishment. We know that Manitobans have put a lot of effort in. We know businesses did whatever they could to make their places safe, but we could see in October and November that despite that, we were on a very bad trajectory. If we opened everything now to where we were in October, we would be back on that trajectory. We need to do this in a very cautious and slow approach."