‘Too early’ for Manitoba to remove COVID-19 health restrictions: epidemiologist

While some Canadian provinces are slowly eliminating COVID-19 restrictions, including mask mandates and vaccine passports in some cases, an epidemiologist says Manitoba should not follow suit just yet.

Epidemiologist Cynthia Carr says Manitoba is still in a predicament due to the novel coronavirus, with the province continuing to record high case counts.

“When we look at our worst-case outcomes ourselves and our neighbours to the west, we are certainly not showing significant progress in reduction of number of deaths,” said Carr.

“It is too early to remove a whole bunch of restrictions at the same time.”

Carr says Manitobans need to push through just a little while longer to prevent a worse-case scenario.

“With a virus that is as infectious as it is, we don’t want to give up tools, we need to keep tools,” she said.

Manitoba has 697 COVID-19 hospitalizations with 40 patients in the ICU.

University of Manitoba virologist Dr. Jason Kindrachuk says with those hospital numbers, the province is not at a point to fully reopen.

“Let’s not assume that this is back to baseline and everything’s normal, let’s be extremely cautious in where we are,” said Kindrachuk.

“Certainly we’re at a point where this is not just an endemic disease.”

READ: Manitoba COVID-19 data shows new hospital admissions have started to drop

Saskatchewan is lifting all of its pandemic public-health orders in a phased approach that is to begin Monday with the removal of its COVID-19 vaccine passport policy.

Ontario and Quebec say they are prepared to loosen restrictions in the coming weeks.

In the last seven days, according to Health Canada data, there have been 560 cases per every 100,000 residents in Manitoba. Saskatchewan is double that at 1,090 cases.

“It’s a little bit puzzling that the province with the highest new case rate in the last two weeks is considering these reductions at these times,” said Carr.

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe says the benefits of providing proof of vaccination no longer outweigh the cost and continue to create division.

That divide is becoming more and more evident in Manitoba, with dozens still protesting mandates at the legislative buildings.

Mayor Brian Bowman called a special meeting to address the protest, which he stated is unlawful and affecting many Winnipeggers.

“Canadians have charter rights for freedom of expression and have the ability to communicate their views on a host of political issues, but what is unique is that it’s day five of a disruption of a public street as well as the noise,” said the mayor.

The Winnipeg Police Service responded to Bowman’s comments by saying they recognized protests can impact citizens and businesses, but that Winnipeg was not as affected as other Canadian cities.

“The WPS is not in a position to discuss details of our operations, but they are conducted to achieve a peaceful resolution,” reads a police statement. “The success of the WPS response to these styles of events is represented by hundreds of peacefully concluded protests in years past.”