4 recent COVID-19 cases linked to travel, close contacts
3 cases were contacts of another recent case, Dr. Brent Roussin says
All four of the COVID-19 cases found in Manitoba from Friday to Sunday were in the Winnipeg region, and three were contacts of another recent case, Manitoba's chief public health officer says.
The case announced Friday was a woman in her 30s who travelled from Ontario and was self-isolating.
The two cases reported Saturday were men in their 30s, and the case on Sunday was a man in his 20s. Two of the three weekend cases were household contacts of another recent case, a provincial spokesperson said, and the third was a close contact of the same person.
"As we reopen, it's likely that we will see and continue to see new cases identified," he said.
"We'll continue to identify them early, perform contact tracing and isolation to limit the chances of ongoing community-based transmission."
No new cases of COVID-19 in Manitoba were announced on Monday.
The active case count is still at five, Roussin said Monday.
There have been 304 cases of COVID-19 in Manitoba: seven of those people have died, but 292 have recovered.
There were 2,125 lab tests performed over the weekend, bringing the total number of tests conducted since early February to 54,381.
In the past week, 338 health-care workers and first responders were tested for COVID-19. Since the province started testing those workers on April 10, a total of 5,225 tests have been conducted, said Lanette Siragusa, chief nursing officer of Manitoba Shared Health.
It's been over a month since any Manitoba front-line health workers have tested positive for the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19, she said Monday.
As the province nears the tentative date for Phase 3 of its economic reopening, the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 "has not gone away," Roussin said.
"We can never be in a zero-risk situation."
As of 4 p.m. Monday, Manitoba's state of emergency due to the pandemic will be extended another 30 days.
The province has been under a state of emergency for nearly three months because of COVID-19.
Transplant program back
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit Manitoba, clinical services such as most organ transplants were put on hold in order to protect highly vulnerable people, organ recipients and organ donors from the illness.
Medically urgent kidney transplants were an exception; they have continued throughout the pandemic.
But on Monday, Siragusa said those services can be fully restored.
"Appointments are being rebooked with the intent of starting transplants next month, assuming the community spread of COVID-19 remains low like it is," Siragusa said.
WATCH| Full news conference about COVID-19 | June 15, 2020:
Clarifications
- An earlier version of this story, based on information from Dr. Brent Roussin, stated the three cases of COVID-19 in Winnipeg announced on Saturday and Sunday were household contacts of a previously known case. In fact, a provincial spokesperson later clarified two cases were household contacts of the previously known case, and one was a close contact of that case.Jun 16, 2020 3:27 PM CT
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With files from Aidan Geary