Rules for approaching autumn amid COVID-19 By: Kevin Rollason Posted: 7:00 PM CDT Tuesday, Sep. 8, 2020

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 07/09/2020 (1584 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There’s a chill in the air — and it’s not just the turn of the calendar page to September.

COVID-19 has been in our lives — and affecting daily living — for months. Through it all, government and public health officials have imposed various restrictions on Manitobans, aimed at first in keeping novel coronavirus numbers flat, then to ensure hospitals aren’t overwhelmed by cases while opening the economy in phases.

Now, five-plus months since the province initially shut down non-essential services, and as the doors reopen to elementary, middle and high school students, what are the current rules for living with the virus?

Face masks

Nothing has evolved more during the pandemic than the personal use of non-medical face masks.

At first, people were told masks weren’t needed if you physically distanced. Later, a mask wouldn’t help you but would help the people around you. Now, a mask will likely help you, too.

The province has not put out a mandatory order for the use of masks across Manitoba. However, during a recent COVID-19 case surge in the Prairie Mountain Health region, it imposed rules for that area, including wearing a mask in all indoor public places, as well as indoor and outdoor public gatherings.

RCMP front-line police officers are using masks when physical distancing is difficult. The City of Winnipeg requires masks inside civic buildings and facilities. Mask use is required when visiting a hospital. Students in grades 4 to 12 have to wear a mask (with some schools adding Grade 3 for split class settings). More and more businesses are telling customers they have to wear masks while shopping.

A recent Probe research poll showed a large majority of Manitobans want the province to make mask use mandatory in indoor public spaces.

Dr. Brent Roussin, chief provincial public health officer, has told Manitobans numerous times over the months a mask is there to protect others and not the person wearing it. Last week, Roussin said if numbers keep going up elsewhere in the province, public health would look at telling more Manitobans to use masks before it imposed other restrictions.

However, not everybody wants to wear a mask, prompting the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba to put out guidelines for doctors, letting them know a patient needs to have “a justified medical condition” before granting an exemption.

“Feeling uncomfortable or holding a strong opinion against mask wearing are not considered to be medical indications for exemption,” the college says.

Some possible reasons for exemptions are for children under the age of five, a person who has “breathing or cognitive difficulties, or a disability, which prevent them from safely wearing a mask and a person who is unable to put on or remove a mask without the assistance of another person.”

Schools

A teacher is in the middle of a Grade 1 math class and has just told students two plus two equals four, when suddenly, from the middle of the room, comes a sneeze.

A year ago, no problem; the child wipes their nose with a tissue and class goes on.

This school year, the teacher has to triage what to do next — and it could result in a parent getting the call to come get their child.

According to the province’s plan, “Welcoming Our Students Back: Restoring Safe Schools,” even before going to school, the student is supposed to have been questioned by their parents: do they feel sick? Do they have certain COVID-19 or flu-related symptoms?

At school, if the teacher decides the child has more than just a sneeze out of the blue, or shows other symptoms, they will be isolated from other students, and parents/caregivers will be called for a pick up.

What if that child’s desk is empty in the coming days, and the school finds out they have tested positive for the coronavirus?

In the province’s Restoring Safe Schools report, released Aug. 31, the principal will be called by the local public health authority if the student is believed to have attending school during the infectious period. If such a call is made, public health officials will ask for records to help them contact staff and children who may have been exposed.

Public health officials will also have to decide, based on each case, whether the teacher and children in a classroom need to be isolated, with remote learning done during the 14-day isolation period, or whether the school needs to be closed. A letter, with a standardized message, will be sent out to parents and students and provincial media bulletins will say there has been an outbreak in a school.

Meanwhile, the child who has the virus won’t be home alone. Public health officials will also order the rest of the family to quarantine at home and self-monitor for symptoms.

Post-secondary students

Most students at the University of Manitoba will attend classes virtually. However, a university spokesman said about 200 courses (out of roughly 2,000) will have some in-person activity during the fall term.

The spokesman said each were evaluated whether it was necessary using three criteria: could the learning outcome be achieved using remote means; was the course a program requirement; if the university cancelled the course, would it cause a significant delay in student progression?

The Winnipeg-based university has set aside the first two weeks of January to offer “critical in-person activities, such as labs,” for some of the course held remotely during the fall term.

The spokesman said a response committee has been put together to work with the province’s public health department if a positive case is identified on campus. The school, while respecting privacy, will put out communications to limit the spread of the virus and “support the health and safety of our university community.”

Any students not able to meet a course requirement due to illness don’t have to submit a medical note, but do have to let their instructor or adviser know in order to get an extension or make-up assignment.

At the University of Winnipeg, spokesman Kevin Rosen said only about 5.8 per cent of fall and fall/winter offerings will be held with students in class.

“Some classes, labs, and research that cannot happen remotely will take place in person on campus,” he said. “Extensive safety protocols, in line with recommendations from public health agencies, have been put in place to ensure the well-being of those who are attending campus.”

Rosen said the university will be keeping track of who is on campus, with the province doing contact tracing, if required.

Meanwhile, Red River College began Phase 3 of its campus re-entry.

Spokesman Conor Lloyd said while RRC will continue to deliver most courses online through the fall, “We expect to welcome more than 46 per cent of our students back to campuses this fall for blended delivery… Mostly online, but with essential hands-on learning that can’t be accomplished in a virtual learning environment.”

Lloyd said programs which began seeing students in-person included a number of construction trades, aerospace, health-care programs including diagnostic imaging, and culinary arts.

The college has moved to ensure physical-distancing guidelines are met and requires face masks for anyone on campus.

“While we’re going to see, on average, about 1,000 students across our campuses per day, the intensity of academic activity will be incredibly low, as students are only on-campus for a limited period of time,” Lloyd said. “Previous years, we would have seen anywhere from 7,000 to 7,500 students on-campus daily across the province.”

Seniors

Seeing how the virus rapidly spread through seniors facilities in other areas of the world, and the tragic toll it took, Manitoba quickly shut down its long-term care homes to all visitors in the early days of the pandemic. For many, it resulted in long periods of not seeing the people who care for them most.

Early in the summer, the province allowed visitors, but in a limited fashion.

Currently, under the phased-in recovery plan, every care home resident can designate two support people who can have unlimited visitation times indoors. As well, the resident can have general visitors, but are encouraged to meet outdoors. All visitors have to be symptom-free, wear a face mask, and go directly to the resident’s room.

Taking the resident off property for a visit is not recommended at this time.

As per the province’s pandemic response plan: if a positive case of COVID-19 is found at a long-term care facility, it will immediately halt indoor and outdoor visitation, except for end-of-life and designated family caregivers.

Quarantining/self-isolating

With changing evidence and recommendations, for some it could be 14 days shut in at home; for others, it could be 10 days.

A recent statement from Shared Health said public health officials were telling health-care providers that updated research and data show people can spread the virus for up to 10 days. It said, because everyone has individual symptoms, health-care providers would work with each patient to determine how long they should isolate.

For most, unless you’re a long-haul trucker, the border to the United States has been closed for months. And not too many are travelling elsewhere around the world these days.

But, if you do, the federal government-imposed mandatory quarantine for 14 days is still in effect.

When returning to Canada, you have to have a place to go to quarantine, you have to go there directly while wearing a face mask in a private vehicle, if possible, and, while en route, you have to avoid contact with others.

Currently, the Manitoba government allows residents to travel across Western Canada and return without isolating.

If you travel east past northwestern Ontario, you will have to isolate for 14 days when you return. There are still provinces (i.e. the Maritimes) you are not supposed to travel to, because they are keeping everyone non-essential out of their bubble.

Canadians living east of northwestern Ontario can come to Manitoba, but they will have to isolate for 14 days; western Canadians can enter Manitoba without isolating.

If you need to isolate upon return, and have close contact with a partner and family, they, too, have to quarantine.

Ontario currently does not require Manitobans (or any other Canadian) to self-isolate when they arrive in that province. Saskatchewan asks people to isolate if they start showing symptoms.

In recent days, health officials in northwestern Ontario have begun warning residents about the possible risks of travelling to Manitoba, due to the rise in its COVID-19 case numbers.

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe, noting increased numbers in Manitoba and Alberta, said Sept. 2: “For now, if you don’t have to travel to another province, please don’t.”

Beyond travel, in Manitoba, if you test positive for the coronavirus, have been in close contact with someone who has it or have symptoms, you will have to isolate.

Shopping

You’re out on your weekly grocery run, getting lumber for a fence or you just want a coffee. A few days later, the province puts out a report that, on the day and time you were at a location, someone else was there who later tested positive for the coronavirus.

A provincial spokesman said you don’t have to self-isolate — yet.

According to public health officials, someone who is in contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19 should self-monitor for symptoms and, only if they begin developing some themselves, immediately isolate. Call Health Links at 204-788-8200 or (toll-free) at 1-888-315-9257.

Currently, only people who develop symptoms are being asked to get tested.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca