Key takeaways:
- According to Dr. Brent Roussin, there is still too much diversity in Manitoba’s COVID-19 figures to tell if new limitations are necessary.
- With 71 of the 147 illnesses recorded on Wednesday, the region accounted for roughly half of the province’s new cases.
Chief Provincial Public Health Officer, Dr. Brent Roussin, says there is still too much variation in Manitoba’s COVID-19 figures to know whether new restrictions are needed in areas severely afflicted by the fourth wave.
“On some days, test positive is increasing, while on other days, it is dropping. The number of [fresh cases] is increasing with time, but not at an exponential rate “He said this during a Zoom news conference on Wednesday afternoon.
More individuals are getting vaccinated now, which is helping to slow the exponential increase in cases seen in prior waves in the province, he said.
Also read: On Wednesday, Manitoba reports 3 more COVID-19 deaths and 147 new cases
“We’ve reached a worrying point, but it’s apparent that vaccines have altered the course of this tsunami.”
Roussin isn’t ruling out the possibility of introducing additional targeted guidelines for Manitoba’s Southern Health Region, which continues to have the highest test positivity rate and the lowest immunisation rate in the province.
With 71 of the 147 illnesses recorded on Wednesday, the region accounted for roughly half of the province’s new cases. A little more than half of Manitoba’s recent cases were also among those who had not been properly vaccinated.
“We’ve been saying for a long time that we’re concerned about the transmission in Southern Health and the number of severe outcomes we’re seeing,” Roussin added.
“We know that this is spread in public events held indoors. We understand that people who haven’t been vaccinated are at a substantially higher risk of contracting COVID and suffering serious consequences. As a result, any future constraints must be focused on those types of concepts.”
The Southern Health region’s test positivity rate has risen to 17.4 percent, according to statistics obtained by CBC News on Wednesday. According to the province’s online coronavirus monitor, the provincial rate is still 5.9%.
According to data obtained by CBC News, Winnipeg has the lowest percentage in Manitoba, at 2.9 percent.
According to the data, the rate in the Interlake-Eastern health region is 3.9 percent, 7.4 percent in the Prairie Mountain health region, and 8.4 percent in the Northern health region.
Meanwhile, in the Southern Health region, vaccine uptake among children born in 2009 or before has reached 69.1%. This stands in sharp contrast to the provincial rate of 87.5 percent.
Manitoba implemented additional pandemic restrictions targeting the Southern Health region earlier this month, limiting the size of religious gatherings that do not require proof of vaccination.
Source: CBC News
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