The province is anticipating its hospital capacity to be tightly stretched as they tighten the health orders in Manitoba's fourth COVID-19 wave.

Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Brent Roussin, Chief Nursing Officer Lanette Siragusa, and Shared Health's Chief Medical Officer Dr. Perry Gray unanimously agree in a closed Friday morning press conference that Manitoba's hospitals are being seriously impacted by rising COVID-19 cases.

"We are seeing a direct relationship between the unvaccinated segments of our population and our rising hospitalization, and in particular, our ICU admission rates. This to us is of course is extremely concerning. If you combine low vaccination with low compliance with public health orders those two are a very concerning combination for us," Gray says.

To reduce cases, Manitoba is moving to Orange: Restricted on the Pandemic Response System.

Starting on Tuesday, new, stricter health orders are coming to Manitoba as a whole, affecting roughly 20 per cent of Manitobans who are not fully vaccinated and eligable. Roussin says fully vaccinated people will not see much of a change with these new orders. There will also be a reduction in capacity at retail locations in Southern Health Sante Sud.

New orders include:

  • limiting households to guests from one other household for private indoor gatherings when any unvaccinated person who is eligible to be vaccinated is on the property
  • limiting households to 10 guests outdoors when any unvaccinated person who is eligible to be vaccinated is on the property
  • reducing indoor public gathering group sizes to 25 people or 25 per cent capacity, whichever is lower, for gatherings that include unvaccinated people who are eligible to be vaccinated, including weddings and funerals
  • reducting indoor group sizes for faith-based gatherings to 25 people or 33 per cent capacity, whichever is greater, for gatherings that include unvaccinated people who are eligible to be vaccinated
  • reducing all outdoor public gatherings sizes to 50 people

There is an additional order is only for Southern Health - Sante Sud. Retail capacity will be moved to a limit of 50 per cent to help reduce the spread of COVID-19 in this region. Roussin says this will be enforced. There are no changes to retail capacity anywhere else.

Previous orders remain in place for areas such as restaurants and movie theatres if fully vaccinated.

"Just to provide an example, faith-based gatherings may take place with the choice of services at their discretion for fully immunized worshippers, therefore, no restrictions," Roussin says. "Or worship that doesn't require proof of vaccination and then they would have the restricted capacity."

Schools are remaining open, as this is a goal for the province. Roussin says currently they are looking at the school COVID-19 response on an individual basis instead of geographically. 

 

Hospital capacity

On Wednesday, Roussin says roughly 75 per cent of all cases were not fully immunized against COVID-19 and all of the ICU patients were not fully vaccinated. 

Gray wants there to be no more than one new ICU admission per day in Manitoba, saying two admissions will likely impact non-COVID-19 procedures, and more than three ICU admissions a day "definitely impacts" non-COVID patients. Previous waves saw two out of every 100 patients needing ICU care.

"However there's a very important assumption that goes along with that and that is it assumes that when patients are getting tested when they have symptoms," Gray says,

Southern health is concerning for Roussin, saying cases could double in less than three weeks. In 19 days, he says this region could have 93 new cases per day. Roussin would not say what the test rate is or how many tests are being done weekly. Half of all the current ICU admissions are people from Southern Health, and 40 per cent of all hospitalizations. The doctor says he is concerned for Manitobans in this region.

"We need to change this trajectory now," Roussin says later Friday afternoon.

He says many people wait until they are in the hospital to receive COVID-19 care, including two-thirds of ICU patients. More hospitalizations are in people who are not fully vaccinated.

St. Boniface and the Health Sciences Centre are being particularly affected by rising cases, as they often do specialized procedures that are being delayed due to COVID cases.

"This is impacting wait times in our emergency department and it's also impacting patient flow throughout the system," Siragusa says.

Patients could be moved out of their home community to receive COVID-19 care. 

Siragusa says at this point their hospitals can currently handle a sudden emergency like a car crash, but it will involve moving staff around. There are currently conversations about out-of-province transfers. In the third wave, dozens of Manitobans were sent to neighbouring provinces like Ontario, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. Currently, Albertan hospitals are also stretched thin as they ask for help from the Red Cross, military, and Newfoundland.

"Please, I'm begging you to get vaccinated," Health Minister Audrey Gordon says Friday afternoon.

New orders encompass Thanksgiving, with the goal to reduce COVID-19 transmission chains. Roussin says close contacts have typically been between four and five people, but have seen as many as 50 contacts as close contact numbers have been increasing.

He says people have recently been less cooperative with contact tracers. He is hearing that people are less forthcoming with where they have been and who they have been with.

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