News Releases

Media Bulletin - Manitoba

April 13, 2020

COVID-19 Bulletin #50



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Public health officials advise four new cases of COVID-19 have been identified as of 9:30 a.m., bringing the total number of lab-confirmed positive and probable positive cases in Manitoba to 246.  

The data also shows:
•    eight individuals are currently hospitalized, which includes four individuals in intensive care;
•    99 individuals have recovered from COVID-19; and
•    the total number of deaths reported in Manitoba is four.

Cadham Provincial Laboratory performed 32 tests Sunday. A total of 17,245 tests have been performed since early February.

The chief provincial public health officer will be extending the public health orders issued on March 30 for two weeks. The orders that were to expire on April 14 are now extended to April 28, 2020, with the following measures remaining in effect:
•    Public gatherings are limited to no more than 10 people at any indoor or outdoor place or premises. This includes places of worship, gatherings and family events such as weddings and funerals. This does not apply to a facility where health-care or social services are provided including child-care centres and homeless shelters.
•    All restaurants and other commercial facilities that serve food are prohibited from serving food to customers in their premises. This prevents eat-in dining at all facilities. However, restaurants and other commercial facilities can prepare and serve food for delivery or takeout. If this takes place, the operator of the restaurant must ensure that all people maintain the appropriate social distancing from other customers when picking up food.
•    All businesses that are not listed in the schedule of critical services that accompanies the order must remain closed.
-    This closure order does not prevent these businesses from operating on a remote basis.
-    A business may accept orders on the Internet, or over the phone for delivery or pickup, as long as the employees are not working at the place of business.
-    The order does not prevent employees or others from coming into the business to perform repairs, to provide security services or to take out items from the business premises if the business is going to operate on a remote basis.
-    Nothing in the order restricts the operations of delivery of services by the federal or provincial governments or a municipality.
-    Nothing in the order restricts any activities of a publicly funded agency, organization or authority that delivers or supports government operations or services, including health-care services. This means the order does not affect institutions, agencies and other service providers who provide health-care services such as hospitals, regional health authorities and private agencies who provide a range of health services.

Manitobans should not interpret current case numbers to mean the risk of COVID-19 is reduced. The current statistics may be a reflection of the effect strict social distancing measures have had and reaffirms that these measures must be continued. Manitobans are reminded this is not the time to let their guard down.

Any person concerned about their exposure to or risk of having COVID-19 should call Health Links–Info Santé at 204-788-8200 or (toll-free) at 1-888-315-9257 to be screened to see if a test is required.

The community testing site in Brandon is moving to a new drive-thru location. Starting Tuesday afternoon, the site will be located at the Brandon Town Centre, 800 Rosser Ave., enter from Eighth Street on the P1 level of the centre’s parkade. Regular hours for the relocated Brandon site will resume Wednesday, operating daily from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

For up-to-date information on community screening sites, visit www.gov.mb.ca/covid19/locations.html.

There have been reports of multiple phishing scams and fraud related to COVID-19. Manitobans are advised not to provide any financial data, hang up on the caller and to report the call to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre at (toll-free) 1-888-495-8501.

For more information and to access the online screening tool for COVID-19, visit:
www.manitoba.ca/covid19.

A comprehensive list of Manitoba government COVID-19 measures can be found at:
https://manitoba.ca/bg/2020/04/covid19.html.

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