Manitoba to drop self-isolation requirement for people who test COVID positive
2 COVID-19 deaths reported in Manitoba on Wednesday as hospitalizations rise by 1
Manitoba is planning to abolish its requirement for people who test positive for COVID-19 to self isolate.
Dr. Jazz Atwal, the province's deputy chief provincial public health officer, announced Wednesday that the public health order is shifting to a recommendation from a requirement as of March 15 — the same day the mask mandate is to be eliminated.
Manitoba will also cease COVID-19 case investigations on that day, he said.
When a positive result is detected at the lab, patients are contacted and given guidance on how to care for themselves and whether they might be eligible for treatment. That practice will continue but the province will not longer attempt to trace where the person picked up — or possibly transmitted — the virus.
More guidance on the changes will be shared in the coming days, Atwal said.
The latest announcements come one day after Manitoba cast aside the need for people to show COVID-19 proof of vaccination to enter public places. The cards and verifier app are still available, and businesses will still be able to require proof of vaccination at their own discretion.
"As we continue to transition to living with COVID-19 outside of public health restrictions, we also need to adjust to the information we collect and share with Manitobans," he added.
Real-time data is less critical with endemic reporting, which means public health is shifting its focus to key pieces of information that provide the most relevant epidemiological metrics for both the public and decision makers, Atwal said.
What exactly that means will be seen in the days ahead, he said.
Fewer restrictions and more interactions will likely result in more cases initially, Atwal said, but added "I don't think we're going to see a new wave." He said he expects to "continue to bump along" with some jumps and drops in numbers.
"The system will continue to prepare for potentially a new wave … but there isn't anything on the horizon that we can see in relation to that. But we're going to continue to monitor that situation."
If need be, he said, the system can be ramped up again to deal with a new wave.
Atwal also announced the province is distributing millions more free, rapid antigen tests for the public to access, and widening the places where people can pick them up, including public libraries and a number of retailers.
2 deaths, increase in hospitalizations
As for the latest COVID-19 numbers, the province's online dashboard reported two COVID-19 deaths on Wednesday as hospitalizations went up by one.
There are now 464 people in Manitoba hospitals with COVID-19. That includes 30 people in intensive care units, an increase of one from Tuesday.
The latest deaths are a person from the Winnipeg health region and another from the Prairie Mountain Health region. No information on ages, sex or links to outbreaks was released Wednesday.
The total number of people in Manitoba who have died due to COVID-19 since the pandemic started is now 1,682.
As of midnight, there were 100 adult patients — those receiving both COVID and non-COVID care — in Manitoba ICUs. The critical care program's normal, pre-COVID baseline capacity was 72 patients.
The province also reported 163 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, bringing the pandemic total to 131,193.
Health officials have repeatedly said those numbers are a significant undercount of the total number of active cases. Manitoba is strictly restricting access to PCR tests at provincial sites and does not track most rapid test results.
Of the new cases, 55 are in the Winnipeg health region, 52 in the Northern Health Region, 32 in the Prairie Mountain Health region, 18 in the in the Southern Health region and six in the Interlake-Eastern health region.
Manitoba's five-day test-positivity rate dipped to 13.7 per cent from 15.9 per cent on Tuesday.
Vaccine campaign being reviewed
As of Wednesday, 86.2 per cent of eligible Manitobans had received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, 82.1 per cent have two doses and 43.8 per cent have received their third shot, the provincial vaccine dashboard says.
The total number of doses administered in the province is now 2,837,314, with 270 scheduled to be given on Wednesday.
As for the vaccination campaign — when it will end, with supersites winding down operations — Atwal said that is all under consideration along with how to deliver vaccines in the future.
"We have some other, smaller teams that are … providing vaxxing as well. I think that will continue for the short term, and we're developing that strategy for the long term," he said, noting it could be something like the annual flu shot.
"You can think of probably 100 different scenarios in relation to what might be happening or what might come down the road, and we're going to prepare for a multitude of those scenarios," he said. "Once further information is finalized in that area, we will provide that to the public."
Similar planning is being done for wrapping up the testing sites, he said.
Government and public health officials have pointed to several indicators that support their decision to drop the mandates, such as a declining number of people in hospital for COVID-19.
Wednesday number of 464 is down from 744 a month earlier.
Atwal noted severe outcomes are decreasing and the daily rate of deaths is receding. He also said daily COVID-19 case numbers are down, even though less weight is being put on that statistic.
"The impact of COVID-19 still exists and will continue to cause hospitalizations and some ICU admissions as well," Atwal said. "But the impacts and severe outcomes is diminished and it's where our system is managing those outcomes.
"Because of all those things … we need to continue our transition to managing COVID-19 like any other virus that impacts one's health."
Despite the assurance things are improving, Manitoba recently requested — and was given approval on Tuesday — for federal assistance that will allow a trio of Red Cross nurses to continue to work at the province's largest hospital for an extra two weeks.
According to a provincial spokesperson, the three Red Cross nurses have been working at Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg since late December. They will continue to offer that support until March 14 to help alleviate the stress on staff due to COVID-19.
The ongoing demand is the consequence of balancing the pandemic with less-restrictive health measures, Atwal said.
"Because of what Manitobans have done, because of vaccine uptake and now treatment availability, we're able to be at this point where we're able to take those restrictions off. That's not to say that the acute care system won't continue to be busy," he said.
"The challenge here is we have to learn to live with COVID. It is a part of our lives and we have to continue to lessen the impacts on the other determinants of health [such as anxiety, depression]. This is that process for that."
WATCH | Full news conference on COVID-19 | March 2, 2022:
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