COVID-19: Cases Rise in Southern Manitoba as Province Moves into Fourth Wave – Winnipeg | The Canadian News

Manitoba health officials say COVID-19 is disproportionately affecting the southern health district as the province moves into a fourth wave of the pandemic.

The Southern Health region is home to approximately 15 percent of the province’s total population, but the area, which also boasts the lowest vaccination rates in Manitoba, contributed to nearly half of the hundreds of new infections reported in the last days.

“We see what’s been happening in our western neighbors, so we knew we were certainly at risk of seeing that (too),” Manitoba’s director of public health Dr. Brent Roussin said Monday, adding that Manitoba it is in the early stages of a fourth wave.

“We knew that despite a relatively high uptake of vaccines across the province, we knew that there were relatively low pockets of unvaccinated people.

“That put us at risk of a fourth wave and we’re starting to see those trends eventualize now.”

On Monday, health officials reported 366 new infections since Thursday, 150 of them coming from the Salud Sur region.

Of the 93 new cases on Monday, 46 occurred in the southern health region. Forty-one of them were among people who were not fully vaccinated.

As of Monday, 84.7 percent of eligible Manitobaans had received one shot of the vaccine and just over 80 percent had received two doses, according to a provincial site tracks vaccination efforts.

But the site shows much lower vaccination rates in parts of southern Manitoba, including 24 percent in Stanley’s MRI and 41.3 percent in Winkler.

To make matters worse, Roussin said the area also has the lowest testing rates in the province, meaning that all too often people in the region receive their first COVID-19 test when hospitalized.

“More than half of the people admitted to the ICU, their first COVID-related test is the day of admission,” he said.

“There are people who are delaying the test and are in the community when they are very ill.”

Manitoba was hit hard by a third wave that overwhelmed the healthcare system. Some COVID-19 patients were transferred to intensive care units outside the province for treatment.

The province had held off the fourth wave for months, largely by keeping public health orders, including a mask mandate.

Manitoba was also the first province to implement a proof of vaccination card, which is required for activities including eating at restaurants and attending sporting events.

Roussin said health officials are not considering implementing stricter health orders in regions where the virus is spreading at higher rates, such as southern Manitoba, but added that he does not rule out regional approaches if necessary.

Health officials also reported two new deaths Monday: a man in his 40s from the Southern Health region who died Sunday and a man in his 60s from the Winnipeg Health region, who also died Sunday.

Meanwhile, officials say 77 people from Manitoba are currently hospitalized due to COVID-19, and 19 patients are in the ICU as a result of the virus.

Since March 2020, 1,209 Mantiobans have died with COVID-19 and the province has reported 60,294 infections from the virus.

There are currently 646 known active cases of COVID-19 in Manitoba. The positivity rate for the five-day test is 2.7 at the provincial level and 1.2 percent in Winnipeg.

– with archives from The Canadian Press

Questions about COVID-19? Here are some things you need to know:

Symptoms can include fever, cough, and shortness of breath, much like a cold or the flu. Some people may develop a more serious illness. People most at risk for this are older adults and people with serious chronic medical conditions, such as heart, lung, or kidney disease. If you have symptoms, contact public health authorities.

To prevent the virus from spreading, experts recommend frequent hand washing and coughing into your sleeve. They also recommend minimizing contact with others, staying home as long as possible and keeping a distance of two meters from other people if you go out. In situations where you cannot keep a safe distance from others, public health officials recommend wearing a non-medical mask or covering to prevent the spread of respiratory droplets that can transmit the virus. In some provinces and municipalities across the country, masks or face coverings are now mandatory in indoor public spaces.

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