Virus continues to strike care homes hard

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This article was published 05/12/2020 (1439 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba reported double digit death tolls each day this weekend, including 383 new cases of COVID-19 and 14 fatalities on Sunday.

That came on the heels of 19 deaths on Saturday — the worst single-day loss of life Manitoba has suffered since the start of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

The previous worst daily death toll was 16 on Dec. 1.

Eighteen of the last 33 COVID-19 deaths have been linked to outbreaks at personal care homes, including eight of 14 on Sunday and 10 of 19 on Saturday.

A man and woman from the Winnipeg health region, both in their 20s, were among the deaths announced this weekend. In total, 395 people have died from the pandemic in Manitoba.

The five-day test positivity rate sits at 13.6 per cent provincewide and 14.4 per cent in Winnipeg.

Among the latest cases, 272 were from the Winnipeg health region, 36 from the Southern Health region, 36 from the Northern health region, 22 from the Interlake-Eastern health region and 17 from the Prairie Mountain health region.

There were 9,216 active cases of COVID-19 in Manitoba as of Sunday morning, with 348 people in hospital and 43 in intensive care units, according to provincial data.

“The chief provincial public health officer urges Manitobans to only leave their homes for essential purposes,” the provincial government said in a press release.

Despite that messaging, however, dozens of cars could be seen attending a drive-in religious service at the Church of God Restoration south of Steinbach Sunday morning.

The minister preached from a trailer and members of the congregation appeared to remain in their vehicles.

The Church of God Restoration has been a lightning rod for controversy in recent weeks as it has repeatedly defied public health orders.

The congregation has been fined at least $5,000, with its minister Tobias Tissen receiving at least two additional fines of $1,296 a piece.

It remains unclear if fines were issued Sunday. The RCMP was on scene monitoring the service.

When reached for comment, a provincial spokeswoman said an update on COVID-19 enforcement efforts would be released Tuesday.

Last Sunday, more than a hundred vehicles arrived at the Church of God Restoration for a service, but the RCMP blocked the parking lot.

The Steinbach-area church is not the only religious community that has attempted to hold services during the critical code-red restrictions that have been implemented in Manitoba.

Springs Church in Winnipeg took the province to court after it was slapped with $32,000 in fines for holding drive-in church services.

As part of the current restrictions, which will be in place until at least Dec. 11, in-person religious services have been banned.

On Saturday, a Manitoba judge denied Springs Church’s motion and upheld the public health orders.

In response, Springs Church cancelled planned drive-in services for this weekend and said it would hold them online instead.

ryan.thorpe@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @rk_thorpe