COVID-19 spreads rapidly in the younger than 20s, so young people in Manitoba need to be immunized or tested to play indoor sports

Similarly, many scheduled surgeries in Winnipeg will be canceled to free the intensive care unit. On the other hand, collection rules will be stricter for religious events in the Southern Manitoba Health Area, which do not require proof of vaccination.

“I know it’s frustrating to come here again,” said Dr. Brent Russan, chief executive officer of the State Public Health Service, at a press conference.

“I think we’re all disappointed … we’re considering further restrictions again, we’re considering it again. [an] An upward trajectory where our healthcare system is once again tense. “

Children and teens affected by the latest restrictions will either be vaccinated at least once or have a negative COVID-19 rapid test for the past 72 hours to play indoor sports when the December deadline is reached. You need to have proof of that.

According to Russan, prompt testing needs to be done at participating private pharmacies rather than at Manitoba’s official testing site.

He said the new rules on youth vaccination also apply to night camps for children.

This update is made because state data show that Manitoba COVID-19 cases are increasing most rapidly among people under the age of 20.

The surgical cancellation announced on Friday will affect some procedures scheduled after November 19, Monika Warren, State COVID-19 Operations Chief of Shared Health, said at a news conference.

This measure addresses the surge in COVID-19 patients entering the Manitoba intensive care unit.

At midnight, Manitoba had a total of 86 critical care patients, 30 of whom were COVID-19 positive. Fifteen of the thirty have been hospitalized in the past week, a 25 percent surge, according to Warren.

Plans to cancel surgery are expected to increase Manitoba’s intensive care capacity to 110.

This affects two procedures at Pan Am Clinic, two at the Misericordia Health Center, two procedures at Victoria Hospital, and endoscopy at Seven Oaks General Hospital.

She said that those whose proceedings were postponed would receive the call.

Church rules start on Saturday

The new rules will also impose restrictions on religious and indigenous cultural gatherings in southern health areas that do not require vaccination certification from Saturday.

Services in the area are limited to 25 people unless the venue can divide people into separate rooms in groups of 25 people — and those cohorts are not allowed to mix.

Roussin said the rally would be limited to a maximum of 250 people and 25 percent capacity if the site was large enough to do that. Everyone still needs to wear a mask and physical distance.

These new rules do not apply to religious meetings that require vaccination certification.

With Winnipeg Eligible rules are already exempt The region is also unaffected by this requirement, Russan said.

These communities, which have much higher vaccination rates than the rest of southern Manitoba, are the regions of Cartier, Headingley, McDonald’s, Ritchot (Niverville-Ritchot), St. Francois Xavier and Tache.

Health Minister Audrey Gordon said the state would send unpublished inspectors to churches in the Southern Health Area to ensure they were in compliance with the rules.

“Once again, we must ask Manitoba to do more to reduce the current number of COVID-19 cases,” Gordon said.

The Southern Health region has both the lowest immunization rate in Manitoba and the highest positive test rate in the state.

On Wednesday, when the test positive rate there was 15.6%, the rate was 3.4% in Winnipeg, according to internal state data leaked to CBC News.

View | Complete Press Conference on COVID-19 | November 12, 2021:

Manitoba Government Daily Briefing on Coronavirus: November 12

State authorities will provide the latest information on the outbreak of COVID-19: Friday, November 12, 2021. 49:53

Winnipeg’s health areas have the highest immunization rates, just over 89%, while slightly above 68% for Southern Health, the lowest of the five health areas in Manitoba.

Not sustainable

The state’s recent increase in cases was initially caused by an epidemic in southern Manitoba, but is now increasing in all but the north, Russan said.

According to modeling presented at a press conference, the potential increase in cases in Manitoba is not as dire as what the state saw during the deadly third wave of the pandemic, but without additional measures. , More than 300 cases can occur daily in December.

However, if no action is taken, hospitalizations could increase as well as in the third wave, and next month it is expected to be admitted to the new COVID-19 intensive care unit three times a day.

“It’s not a sustainable number,” Russan said.

He said the new measures were to the extent that the state could proceed before reapplying the rules to vaccinated people.

“If our health care system continues to be strained, further action may be needed.”

Hospitalization in Manitoba has already increased significantly in the past few weeks. Eighty-seven COVID-19 patients were hospitalized on October 20, and the number now reaches 145.

Manitoba’s daily case load is increasing as well. As of Friday, the 7-day average for daily cases was 169, an increase from 85 on October 20th.

In the state, overall test positive rates continue to skyrocket, nearly doubling in the same time frame.

Need more ICU capacity: opposite

Opposition NDP leader Wab Kinew said the reason Manitoba had to cancel surgery to free up hospital space was because the state hadn’t expanded its intensive care capacity enough.

“Where is our state? Did we expand the ICU’s capacity to 200 beds 18 months ago and take steps to properly staff?” He said on Friday. Then I talked to the reporters.

“Our current Prime Minister was the Minister of Health six months ago when we were learning some of these painful lessons, so we haven’t made those necessary investments yet. Why? “

Liberal leader Dagard Lamont said the government did not act fast enough to keep track of the increasing number of incidents in recent weeks.

“We knew that the fourth wave was inevitable for months, but when the incidents began to increase, the government seemed to be constantly caught in surprise,” he said.

He said he did not understand why the Southern Health Area did not move to the red or critical levels of the state’s pandemic response system, given the high test-positive rates of the last few weeks.