Manitobans told to batten down the hatches By: Carol Sanders Posted: 12:13 PM CST Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2020 Last Modified: 6:59 PM CST Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2020 Updates

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Manitobans won’t be able to have a beer with their neighbour, get their roots touched up at a salon or go to church or their gym for at least two weeks — but maybe as long as four weeks.

Every region in Manitoba will begin a lockdown as of Thursday — its second since COVID-19 was first identified in the province in March — as health officials scramble to tamp down the virus that has been spreading rapidly across the province.

Chief provincial public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin announced a “circuit breaker” approach on Tuesday that aims to shut down transmission of COVID-19 for at least one two-week incubation period — but will most likely take two.

Roussin held a joint news conference with Premier Brian Pallister on Tuesday.

“These measures are not easy measures,” the premier said.

The heightened restrictions, which will take effect at 12:01 a.m. Thursday, will be much tougher than those currently in place in metropolitan Winnipeg and the Southern Health region. Non-essential public-facing businesses must close and social contacts must be restricted to household members. Social gatherings will not be permitted. But schools and child care centres will remain open.

“There will be no change to education delivery,” said Roussin. “We’re not seeing widespread transmission of the virus in schools,” he explained. Although there have been outbreaks in schools, they’ve been caused by community transmission, Roussin said.

Thursday’s provincewide shutdown is needed because the virus is too widespread in Manitoba to take a targeted approach, Roussin said, after more than 2,000 new COVID-19 cases were reported in one week.

“The test-positivity rate has climbed in all jurisdictions,” he said. The entire province’s rate was 10.6 per cent on Tuesday. The threshold for maintaining control of the virus is five per cent. Even Prairie Mountain Health region, which was Canada’s coronavirus hot spot in late summer, then succeeded in flattening its curve, has had its test-positivity rate climb back up to more than four per cent in recent days, said Roussin.

“The trend is moving in the wrong direction in all regions,” said Roussin. “We’re seeing that strain in our health-care system.”

It doesn’t matter where COVID-19 is spreading in Manitoba. If someone gets really sick, they’ll end up in hospital and may need a bed in intensive care, where staffing is in short supply.

The provincewide restrictions include:

• Social contacts must be reduced to households only.
• Travel to and from northern Manitoba will be restricted and non-essential travel will be discouraged.
• Retail businesses not listed as critical services have to close to the public, but can provide e-service, curbside pickup or delivery services.
• All personal-service businesses, including hair salons, barbers and sites offering manicures, pedicures and other esthetic services, must close.
• Gyms and fitness centres must close.
• Religious and cultural gatherings must close.
• Restaurants must close in-person dining.
• All recreational activities, sports facilities, casinos, museums, galleries, libraries, movie theatres and concert halls must close.

“We want people to stay home as much as possible,” said Roussin. People who provide child care or home care services are not the target of the code-red restrictions, he said. “This is to reduce social visits.”

When asked why massage therapists and physiotherapists can remain open while hair salons — which haven’t been cited for breaking public health orders or listed for possible COVID-19 exposure — must close, Roussin said it’s because they’re regulated health professions. “It’s the balance. Do we still want people to have access to therapeutic supports?”

The province needs to decrease the spread of the virus and that requires decreasing the number of contacts people have. “It’s not purposely targeting those sectors, it’s targeting the virus,” said Roussin. “We have to decrease where people can gather.”

Critics said the tougher, provincewide lockdown is too late: a sweeping shutdown should have happened on Oct. 19. Instead, the province backed down on plans to order Winnipeg-area beverage rooms to close.

“Could we have avoided some of what we’ve seen over these past few weeks had this action taken place at that time?” NDP Leader Wab Kinew asked on Tuesday. “Had we acted decisively then, we could have avoided some of the pain we’ve seen over the past few weeks,” he said.

“This lockdown is something we called for 10 days ago,” said Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont. The government’s decision to wait to order a sweeping shutdown is akin to a homeowner seeing a fire start in their garage but not calling 911 until the entire block is ablaze, Lamont said.

“It is an unbelievable failure,” said the Lamont, who called on the province to consider closing schools.

“It’s not purposely targeting those sectors, it’s targeting the virus. We have to decrease where people can gather.” – Dr. Brent Roussin

Pallister said Tuesday there is no “profitability” in blaming his government’s pandemic response. He said the situation at the Maples Personal Care Home on the weekend where eight residents died and paramedics were called in is “heart-breaking, devastating and parts of it are unacceptable.”

Pallister said it’s time for everyone to join “Team Manitoba.”

“The next few weeks are not going to be easy,” the premier said.

On the eve of Remembrance Day, Pallister called on Manitobans to honour the sacrifice of Canada’s veterans and step up and do their part for the greater good now. “The best thing we can do for our businesses and each other is (to) flatten that COVID curve. All of us have a role to play.”

Details of changes under critical restrictions

— with files from Danielle DaSilva

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca

Carol Sanders
Legislature reporter

After 20 years of reporting on the growing diversity of people calling Manitoba home, Carol moved to the legislature bureau in early 2020.

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