Forty-nine new cases of COVID-19 were announced in Manitoba on Monday, marking another double-digit day following two record-breaking tallies over the weekend.
Public health officials announced 42 new cases on Saturday and 72 new cases on Sunday, bringing Manitoba’s total active cases to 395 as of Monday.
Manitoba’s Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Brent Roussin clarified during a news conference Monday that 24 of the day’s new cases are being retroactively added to Sunday’s total, bringing that day’s case count to 96.
That leaves the official Monday tally at 25 new cases, he said.
“Things have changed so quick with this. We weren’t really expecting to see the numbers we did this soon,” Roussin said.
The current five-day COVID-19 test positivity rate is 2.9 per cent.
Roussin has previously said a test positivity rate over three per cent would suggest significant community-based transmission, which could cause health officials to bring back restrictions to slow the spread of COVID-19.
He says that’s not off the table, but the high number isn’t representative of how the whole province is doing.
“It’s a bit skewed when a huge part of that positive test proportion is related to tight clusters. If you look at the last few days, two-thirds of that positive test proportion is related to cluster outbreaks,” he said. “It’s a bit misleading, that number, when it’s this high.”
Of the 49 new cases between both days announced Monday, there were 35 in the Prairie Mountain Health region, two in the Interlake-Eastern Regional Health Authority, four in Southern Health and eight in the Winnipeg health region, Roussin said.
Roussin said 236 of Manitoba’s 993 cases — nearly one-quarter — are in communal living communities, including Hutterite communities. People in these communities make up more than a third of the active cases in the province, with 148 active as of Monday.
Of those active cases, 99 were announced in the last three days while a mobile testing site was set up.
“I think as we’re reaching out, working with the communities … then we’re going to see cases that are related to that,” Roussin said.
The majority of the cases announced on Monday in the Prairie Mountain Health region are related to known clusters in “communal living communities,” including Hutterite communities, he added.
There have been 320 cases in the Prairie Mountain Health region since July 1, Roussin said, with 196 active cases as of Monday. A total of 52 of those cases are employees at a business in Brandon, Man., which media reports have confirmed is the Maple Leaf pork-processing plant. Thirty-four of those cases are active.
A potential exposure to COVID-19 may have occurred at the Safeway Corral Centre (921 18th St. North) in Brandon, Roussin said. The exposure may have happened on Aug. 15 between 2 p.m. and 6 p.m., Aug. 18 between 11:30 a.m. and 8 p.m. and on Aug. 19 between 2 p.m. and 4:45 p.m.
He says the risk of transmission is considered low, but information is being provided to help people assess their risk and get tested if they start to show symptoms.
In total, there are 993 confirmed cases of the disease caused by the novel coronavirus in the province.
Across Canada, there have been more than 125,000 confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases.
This includes one nurse, four health-care aides and two workers categorized as “other.” Five of them contracted the virus from close contacts, while two are considered unknown transmission or community spread.
CBC News has reached out to Shared Health for more information about these health care workers.
COVID-19 testing
Roussin says 1,544 lab tests were completed on Sunday, bringing the total number of tests completed since early February to 127,149.
A new community COVID-19 testing site will open at 2735 Pembina Highway in Winnipeg on Tuesday.
The site will be open to the public on a walk-in basis, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., seven days a week. Access Fort Garry will no longer be offering COVID-19 testing once the new site opens.
Meanwhile, the Portage la Prairie drive-thru community testing site is moving to a new location.
The site will be closed on Wednesday and will re-open at Portage Avenue and 5th Street SE on Thursday. Hours of operation will be Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. by appointment only. To book an appointment, call 204-428-3471.
HALIFAX – The Nova Scotia government says it could be months before it reveals how many people are on the wait-list for a family doctor.
The head of the province’s health authority told reporters Wednesday that the government won’t release updated data until the 160,000 people who were on the wait-list in June are contacted to verify whether they still need primary care.
Karen Oldfield said Nova Scotia Health is working on validating the primary care wait-list data before posting new numbers, and that work may take a matter of months. The most recent public wait-list figures are from June 1, when 160,234 people, or about 16 per cent of the population, were on it.
“It’s going to take time to make 160,000 calls,” Oldfield said. “We are not talking weeks, we are talking months.”
The interim CEO and president of Nova Scotia Health said people on the list are being asked where they live, whether they still need a family doctor, and to give an update on their health.
A spokesperson with the province’s Health Department says the government and its health authority are “working hard” to turn the wait-list registry into a useful tool, adding that the data will be shared once it is validated.
Nova Scotia’s NDP are calling on Premier Tim Houston to immediately release statistics on how many people are looking for a family doctor. On Tuesday, the NDP introduced a bill that would require the health minister to make the number public every month.
“It is unacceptable for the list to be more than three months out of date,” NDP Leader Claudia Chender said Tuesday.
Chender said releasing this data regularly is vital so Nova Scotians can track the government’s progress on its main 2021 campaign promise: fixing health care.
The number of people in need of a family doctor has more than doubled between the 2021 summer election campaign and June 2024. Since September 2021 about 300 doctors have been added to the provincial health system, the Health Department said.
“We’ll know if Tim Houston is keeping his 2021 election promise to fix health care when Nova Scotians are attached to primary care,” Chender said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – Newfoundland and Labrador‘s chief medical officer is monitoring the rise of whooping cough infections across the province as cases of the highly contagious disease continue to grow across Canada.
Dr. Janice Fitzgerald says that so far this year, the province has recorded 230 confirmed cases of the vaccine-preventable respiratory tract infection, also known as pertussis.
Late last month, Quebec reported more than 11,000 cases during the same time period, while Ontario counted 470 cases, well above the five-year average of 98. In Quebec, the majority of patients are between the ages of 10 and 14.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick has declared a whooping cough outbreak across the province. A total of 141 cases were reported by last month, exceeding the five-year average of 34.
The disease can lead to severe complications among vulnerable populations including infants, who are at the highest risk of suffering from complications like pneumonia and seizures. Symptoms may start with a runny nose, mild fever and cough, then progress to severe coughing accompanied by a distinctive “whooping” sound during inhalation.
“The public, especially pregnant people and those in close contact with infants, are encouraged to be aware of symptoms related to pertussis and to ensure vaccinations are up to date,” Newfoundland and Labrador’s Health Department said in a statement.
Whooping cough can be treated with antibiotics, but vaccination is the most effective way to control the spread of the disease. As a result, the province has expanded immunization efforts this school year. While booster doses are already offered in Grade 9, the vaccine is now being offered to Grade 8 students as well.
Public health officials say whooping cough is a cyclical disease that increases every two to five or six years.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick’s acting chief medical officer of health expects the current case count to get worse before tapering off.
A rise in whooping cough cases has also been reported in the United States and elsewhere. The Pan American Health Organization issued an alert in July encouraging countries to ramp up their surveillance and vaccination coverage.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 10, 2024.
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