Manitoba announced six new cases of COVID-19 in Northern Manitoba Oct. 28 among 170 new cases across the province.
Three of the new cases are in The Pas/Opaskwayak Cree Nation/Kelsey health district, which now has 30 active cases and four recoveries, tying it with Thompson for the most total cases of any northern health district, at 34. There were also two new positive tests from unknown health districts and one in the Bunibonibee/Oxford House/Manto Sipi/Gods River/Gods Lake health district.
Now new cases were announced in the Thompson/Mystery Lake health district, which has 11 active cases and 23 recoveries, for the second straight day.
The remaining active cases are spread out throughout the region – three cases each in the Island Lake and Lynn Lake/Marcel Colomb/Leaf Rapids/O-Pipon-Na-Piwin/Granville districts. Four districts have one active case – Bay Line, Flin Flon/Snow Lake/Cranberry Portage/Sherridon (the active case is in Snow Lake), Norway House and Shamattawa/York Factory/Tataskweyak/Split Lake.
The total number of cases in the north since the pandemic began is now at 119.
No new confirmed cases were announced Wednesday in the Cross Lake/Pimicikamak Cree Nation health district which has 10 active cases, but chief provincial public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin said that the community has been moved to the critical/red level under the provincial Pandemic Response System because the people who have tested positive had a large number of close contacts, including at a funeral on Oct. 18 which was attended by someone who tested positive while they were in their infectious period.
The Cross Lake Band of Indians announced its own lockdown Oct. 27. Rapid tests have been used in the community, apparently adding several cases that have not yet been shown in provincial statistics.
"We presently have the rapid response team in our community of Cross Lake, who are testing contacts from the original positive cases in the community," reads the band's statement. "Three positive cases have been identified today [Oct. 27] through the rapid testing process. These people and their contacts will have to self-isolate and wait for further notice from public health."
At Cross Lake, residents are advised to stat at home and only essential services are open to the public. Schools, day cares and headstart programs have been shut down, with a checkpoint set up on the way into the community and travel into or out of the community shut down except for people delivering food, fuel, medical supplies or other deliveries. People who leave the community for medical appointments will not be allowed back in until Nov. 2. Homes of people who are under self-isolation will be marked by the band and a 24-hour curfew is in effect.
Roussin says the recent jumps in the number of cases in the Cross Lake health district, which went from zero cases to at least 10 within two weeks, and in The Pas health district, which went from no active cases to 30 in less than 10 days, can be attributed to people gathering in large groups.
“The virus hasn’t fooled us. It hasn’t been transmitted in ways that we didn’t anticipate,” he said. “This virus is transmitting in large group settings. In many areas like this just large funerals, a large amount of people gathered – indoor prolonged contact and then you see a lot of cases. We know exactly what to do to limit transmission and we have a very good lesson right now in these last number of weeks what happens when we don’t follow that. Exactly what you see in [those] communities .. we see it in Winnipeg, we see it everywhere right now.”
While the region reported six new cases, the total active case count in the north only increased by two people – the numbers released by the province Oct. 27 showed 66 active cases. Recoveries are starting to outnumber active cases in some jurisdictions. In Shamattawa/York Factory/Tataskweyak/Split Lake, the active case load has dropped to one, with eight people – including seven members of a family in York Landing who contracted the disease when a family member was exposed in Winnipeg during medical treatment – now recovered.
No deaths have been reported in Northern Manitoba and it is the only health region in the province with no active cases of COVID-19 among health care workers right now, according to Manitoba’s chief nursing officer Lanette Siragusa.
Province-wide, active cases and deaths continue to mount. Three more deaths were announced due to COVID-19 Wednesday – one man in his 80s from Winnipeg linked to an outbreak at Victoria Hospital, a woman in her 80s from the Interlake-Eastern health region and a man in his 40s from the Interlake-Eastern region. There have now been 61 deaths due to the virus in the province overall.
Over the past five days, 7.3 per cent of all COVID-19 tests completed in Manitoba have come up positive and there are currently 2,334 active cases across the province with 89 people in hospital, 19 of them in intensive care.
- with files from the Flin Flon Reminder
