Discussions

In the face of rising numbers of Covid and the increased presence of variants, the province announced on Monday afternoon new public health orders that will be in effect starting Wednesday at 12:01am and for four weeks. Please see the link below for the full release. Changes mentioned in that link include:  
 
• no visitors will be allowed to private households either indoors or outdoors with certain exceptions including allowing one visitor for people who live alone:  
• no indoor gatherings will be permitted and outdoor gatherings of up to 10 people will be allowed in public outdoor spaces only:  
• faith-based gatherings will be limited to 25 per cent capacity or a maximum of 10 people, whichever is lower, with indoor mask use required at all times:  
• patio dining will be restricted to groups of four people only with no household restrictions:  
• food courts in malls and shopping centres will be required to close:  
• gyms and fitness centres continue to be limited to 25 per cent capacity, but individuals, patrons and staff will be required to maintain physical distancing of three metres (nine feet) from others:  
• spectators at outdoor sports and recreation facilities will be limited to one parent/caregiver spectator per youth participant, if physical distancing of two m (six ft.) is maintained:  
• dance, theatre and music schools will continue to be limited to 25 per cent capacity, but the new orders will limit the maximum number of people on site to 10 with one parent/caregiver spectator per youth participant, if physical distancing of two m (six ft.) is maintained:  
• personal service business will be able to continue to operate at 50 per cent capacity, but appointments will be required:  
• day camps will be permitted to have up to 10 children indoors and outdoors: and  
• retail stores must be limited to 25 per cent of the capacity of the store or up to 250 patrons, whichever is lower, and malls will be limited to 25 per cent of the facility’s capacity.  
 
Please read the link below and share to ensure that those around you are aware of increased expectations as we're asked to do our part to keep this community and province safe:  
https://news.gov.mb.ca/news/?archive=&item=51171

Get the facts on Covid in Manitoba at:
https://manitoba.ca/covid19/index.html

There are many restrictions on place on travel at the federal level:  
https://travel.gc.ca/travel-covid  
 
Travel absolutely can’t be discounted as a transmission vector, but less than 2% of cases in Canada are coming from travel. Here’s hoping that the restrictions announced today help to stomp on the kind of exponential spread within communities and within the province that this latest wave has been proving its capable of doing at alarming levels.

Absolutely.  
I think the point is our best way out is starting with the here and now, looking ahead and controlling what we can control. International travel restrictions are very important and fully support strongly enforcing the restrictions that are in place as a way of clamping down on any cases that might sneak in externally... but with how I understand it, the focus of these new orders at the provincial level is mainly to try to control spread of isolated cases within communities from spiralling into a health system-inundating outbreak through the kinds of close contacts that exponentially spread.  
 
If people do what’s within their control, follow the orders and make sure others know what's expected the thought will be that we can keep spread to a minimum and buy enough time for the incoming doses of vaccine to get the population meaningfully enough protected to get closer to the other side of this.  
 
Based on what we’re hearing about some of the flare ups in the area lately, IMO the indoor/outdoor gathering restrictions are the biggest one that jumps off the page as attacking spread where we seem to be seeing it. I’ll admit I was expecting to see something a little more resembling what we saw in the lead-up to Christmas and so there are a few items I thought might make the list today that didn’t… but I’ll put some trust that they’re ready to pivot further sooner rather than later if this doesn’t get under control in a hurry.

Hang in there! "Darkness before the dawn" is how I saw Covid in Canada right now described yesterday by a WHO advisor:  
https://globalnews.ca/news/7783823/coronavirus-covid-who-end-pandemic-vaccine-reopen/  
 
Link from that same story has Dr. Tam saying that 75% of adults getting at least their first vaccine dose looks to be the ticket to a less restrictive summer in Canada. If that number is only 55%, a scenario would have lifted restrictions still leading to overwhelming of hospitals:  
https://globalnews.ca/news/7782950/covid-lifting-restrictions-canada-first-vaccine/  
 
As far as Manitoba specifically, right now the Vaccine page has us up to 32.9% of adults with at least one dose based on over 429,000 doses administered. At the media briefing today they said that more than 300,000 more vaccines are expected to be administered over these next four weeks while the new restrictions are in place. That will put us in a spot to take a big bite out of that percentage over this next month, with Dr. Roussin saying that if we all do our part these could very well be our last restrictive orders. 

I'd really recommend following the vaccine page and that percentage of vaccinated number. Based on how important it is, I'll start including it in the daily updates in the Covid facts thread tomorrow but please don't take that as a substitute for checking the page direct for the depth of info that's being put out!

Thanks for the kind reply

As of Wednesday, Manitobans will not be allowed to have any visitors at their homes, either indoors or outdoors, with some exceptions for people who live alone, the provincial  
Soccer games and practices can have as many people as they want. No limit if it is a ORGANIZED practice.

OF COURSE no two people are within 2 metres while pursuing the kick ball???????

of course everyone including spectators have their mask in place??????