Manitoba announced a record-high number of new daily COVID-19 cases Nov. 23, adding 543 new cases and pushing the total since the pandemic began to more than 14,000, about one per cent of the province’s population.
Twenty-seven new cases were announced in the north, the 11th straight day with more than 20 new positive tests in the region, which has 449 active cases of COVID-19.
Only 16 new cases were announced Nov. 17 but provincial information online shows that more than 20 northerners actually tested positive on Nov. 16.
Eleven new cases were announced in The Pas/Opaskwayak Cree Nation/Kelsey health district, which is nearing 200 active cases, as well as five in the Grand Rapids/Mosakahiken/Moose Lake/Easterville/Chemawawin health district, which now has 91 active cases, the second-most of any northern health district. There were also three new cases in the Shamattawa/York Factory/Tataskweyak/Split Lake health district, two in the Island Lake health district and one each in the Cross Lake/Pimicikamak Cree Nation health district and the Flin Flon/Snow Lake/Cranberry/Sherridon health district, which now has five active cases and had its first COVID outbreak declared on Monday at the Flin Flon personal care home.
A Northern Regional Health Authority (NRHA) spokesperson confirmed to the Flin Flon Reminder Nov. 23 that a staff member at the home tested positive for the disease. The NRHA was made aware of the case Nov. 22.
On the same day, a different staff member, working at the Northern Lights Manor in Flin Flon, also tested positive for COVID-19.
No residents of either facility have tested positive as of Nov. 23. It is unknown if any residents were exposed to either staff member or where the staff members may have acquired the disease.
While no outbreak has been officially announced at Northern Lights Manor by the provincial government, the NRHA confirmed that outbreak protocols are in effect at both facilities. An outbreak notice for the facility will be issued later this week.
“Public Health declared an outbreak in both facilities and immediately began the process of contact tracing and management of the cases. As a precaution, all residents of both care homes were offered COVID-19 testing – 98 per cent of the residents have been tested. To date, no residents have tested positive for COVID-19 at either location,” said the spokesperson Nov. 23.
The outbreak status will include new, more restrictive measures at the homes. Admissions to both facilities have been suspended and staff are being screened daily for COVID-19 symptoms, according to the spokesperson.
“All staff who are in contact with residents will be wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) to further prevent any potential transmission between staff members and residents,” reads the spokesperson’s statement.
One of the recent cases in the Flin Flonn/Snow Lake/Cranberry/Sherridon health district was a worker at Hudbay’s Stall mill in Snow Lake, according to a memo issued by the company Nov. 21.
Across the province, 296 people were in hospital as of Nov. 23, and 96 of the province’s intensive care beds were occupied, 52 of them by COVID-positive patients. Manitoba chief nursing officer Lanette Siragusa said that 43 of the 79 patients in Manitoba on ventilators as of Monday morning were hospitalized due to COVID-19 and more than 900 non-urgent and elective surgeries have now been cancelled in the past four weeks.
“Our hospitals continue to fill with COVID patients,” Siragusa said. “These increases in hospitalizations are the result of the high case numbers that we’ve seen ongoing for the past few weeks. These case numbers continue to put additional pressure on our system.”
Siragusa also said that 17 health care workers hav tested positive for COVID-19 in the past week, but none of them were in the Northern Regional Health Authority
There were 10 northern residents in hospital due to COVID-19 Nov. 23, none of them in intensive care.
There have been five deaths of northern residents since the pandemic began, the latest, of a man in his 60s, having been announced on Nov. 21. that came just one day after the region’s fourth death – woman in her 50s from The Pas/Opaskwayak Cree Nation/Kelsey health district – was announced last Friday.
Chief provincial public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin announced seven more deaths in Manitoba due to COVID-19 on Monday bring the total in the province to 236. Of those, 161 have died since Nov. 1.
“The list continues to grow and it’s very challenging to be reading every day,” Roussin said. “It might be easy just to think of these as numbers but we know these are Manitobans. Consider how many Manitobans are affected by this.”
Roussin did say there might be some early indications that moving the whole province to the red/critical level on Nov. 12 may be having the desired effect.
“We have fewer number of contacts per case right now,” he said. “It’s expected that’s going to translate into a fewer number of cases in the next week to 10 days.”
But in light of reports that some religious organizations were continuing to hold in-person services in violation of public health orders, Roussin said the restrictions are not intended to curtail freedoms but to protect Manitobans.
“These orders are here to save lives,” Roussin said. "When you have a test positivity rate of what we're seeing really anywhere in the province we can't have large gatherings safely."
The test positivity rate in the province was 14 per cent on Monday.
