New changes to COVID-19 health orders
- Details
- Published on Tuesday, August 3, 2021
By Banner & Press staff
The Manitoba Government has decided to move ahead with new public health orders and guidance for COVID-19 a full month earlier than originally expected. Premier Brian Pallister and Dr. Brent Roussin, Manitoba’s chief provincial public health officer made the announcement on Tuesday, Aug. 3.
“Thanks to the remarkable efforts of Manitobans, we are now in a position to reopen more, sooner, as we have achieved our highest vaccination rates yet,” said Pallister. “This means Manitobans will enjoy the least restrictive public health orders since the start of the pandemic last year.”
The new public health orders will allow the following sectors to open without restrictions:
• indoor and outdoor gatherings at private residences;
• gyms and fitness centres;
• libraries;
• personal services such as hair and nail salons;
• day camps; and
• retail businesses, markets, garden centres and malls.
Other sectors will open with limited restrictions including:
• expanded capacity limits will remain in place for weddings, funerals and other public gatherings both indoors and outdoors including larger capacity limits for worship and cultural events like pow wows;
• restaurants and bars will no longer need to restrict the size or space between tables and dining will not be restricted to households or vaccinated individuals; however, patrons will still be expected to avoid congregating or socializing between tables;
• museums, galleries and movie theatres will remain limited to 50 per cent capacity but will no longer be restricted to vaccinated individuals;
• casinos and bingo halls, professional sporting events, horse and auto racing, and concert halls will continue to be limited to vaccinated individuals; however, all these facilities may now open to 100 per cent capacity;
• indoor and outdoor sports and recreation will fully reopen with limits only on spectator capacity;
• overnight camps will be permitted with limits on camper cohorts;
• workplaces must continue to report cases to government for followup and public health-confirmed transmission of COVID-19 in the workplace may result in workplaces being ordered to close for a minimum of 10 days; and
• remote working will no longer be required or recommended by public health and workplaces will be encouraged to transition from COVID-19 safety plans to a general communicable disease prevention plan that focuses on basic risk-reduction principles to reduce the risk of workplace transmission of COVID-19 and other respiratory illnesses.
Due to the ongoing presence of COVID-19 in Manitoba and elsewhere, and the extra risk posed by the more contagious delta variant, provincial public health officials strongly recommend the following:
• wearing masks in indoor public spaces for everyone who is not fully immunized including children under 12; and
• maintaining physical distancing of two metres (six feet) in indoor settings
The new public health orders will go into effect at 12:01 a.m., Saturday, Aug. 7.The orders will expire at 12:01 a.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 7, and will be reassessed at that time in the context of vaccination rates and the province’s overall COVID-19 situation.
