Two changes were announced for Manitoba's provincial public health orders Thursday, restricting outdoor gatherings and how many members of a family can enter businesses over May long weekend.
As of 12:01 a.m. May 22, outdoor gatherings involving people outside a household will be restricted, including in places like parks, golf courses and other public areas. Only one person per household will be allowed to enter businesses, barring situations where a person seeking to enter a business needs help from a caregiver or health worker.
Unlike other health orders - which are typically announced for several weeks at a time - this round of health orders will be in place until 12:01 a.m. May 26, four days after they were announced.Â
The new restrictions were announced by Manitoba health minister Heather Stefanson and chief provincial public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin May 20 and come after several rounds of stricter and stricter health orders during the third wave of COVID-19.Â
"We're in a very critical stage. Right now, our focus should be to limit our contact outside our household," said Roussin.
"We can see from our numbers that it's absolutely required to change what we're doing right now. We've had very strict public health orders in place. Despite that, we've seen our case numbers climb. We need to change what we're doing right now. We need a dramatic shift in the amount of contacts we have. We have hundreds of people in the hospital that are struggling for their lives. There's thousands of health care providers that are struggling to provide care for them."
"We need all Manitobans to do their part to protect themselves, their loved ones and our community," added Stefanson.
"We know everyone would love to spend the weekend connecting with friends, family and loved ones. Today, we are urging everyone to hang on a little bit longer."
For people hoping to camp over the May long weekend, the orders will still allow for camping in provincial and private campgrounds - provided that campers keep their campsites to people within their own household.
Manitoba reported its single worst day yet for new cases since the pandemic began May 20, announcing 602 net new cases of the disease. Out of those cases, 36 were found in the Northern Health Region (NHR), including five new cases in the Flin Flon/Snow Lake/Cranberry Portage/Sherridon health district.Â
More people are now in Manitoba hospitals and intensive care units due to COVID-19 than at any other point during the pandemic - 291 people are now hospitalized due to the disease throughout Manitoba, with 76 people in Manitoba in intensive care, 56 of whom still have active COVID-19 cases. So many people are now in need of intensive care that some Manitobans have been medevaced to Thunder Bay due to a lack of ICU beds in the province.
"Every day, we're seeing more and more Manitobans admitted to hospital and to ICU. We're seeing younger Manitobans being admitted, much younger than what we've seen in the second wave," Roussin said.
"We're seeing people in ICU who acquired it at family gatherings and potlucks and our hearts go out to them and to their family because no one would be intending this to occur, but we just know that's the risk of gathering. Now, we're seeing these severe outcomes as as a result of that."
