No omicron cases in Manitoba, 24 travellers isolating, as 124 new COVID cases, 2 deaths reported Wednesday
No cases of omicron detected in Manitoba at this time, but 24 people must isolate after travel to Africa
Manitoba reports 124 new cases of COVID-19 and two more deaths on Wednesday.
There are 48 new cases in the Southern Health region (31 of them not fully vaccinated), 31 in the Winnipeg health region (15 not fully vaccinated), 21 in the Interlake-Eastern health region (12 not fully vaccinated), 20 in the Prairie Mountain Health region (eight not fully vaccinated) and four in the Northern Health Region (three not fully vaccinated).
No cases of the B.1.1.529 or omicron variant have been detected in Manitoba at this time, though a few have emerged in in Ottawa, Quebec and most recently in Alberta.
At this time, 24 people who have travelled to 10 African countries and arrived in Manitoba are being required to quarantine, Chief Provincial Public Health Officer Dr. Brent Roussin said in an online news conference on Wednesday.
Officials are sequencing all positive travel-related COVID-19 test results to monitor for the presence of omicron in Manitoba.
Little is known yet about exactly how transmissible or deadly it is compared to other variants, but the World Health Organization's announcement about it influenced a range of countries, including Canada, to announce strict border controls in recent days.
Even in the presence of a new variant of concern, Dr. Joss Reimer, the medical lead of the vaccine implementation task force, said she is optimistic because Manitoba children are now eligible for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
"The five to 11 age group was making up an increasing proportion of all of our cases because they weren't vaccinated, they didn't have access. And even with the omicron variant being a potential risk that we haven't yet seen in Manitoba, but certainly could, the vaccine is still the best tool to protect Manitobans," she said at the news conference.
The pediatric dose was tested on children when the delta or B.1.617 variant was the dominant variant of concern, which provides even more reason to be optimistic, Reimer said.
"The 91 per cent efficacy that they saw in the study was looking at delta, so already looking at a variant that was more concerning than the original strain," she said.
"They will protect against it. It's a variant, but it's the same virus. We know the vaccine will produce immunity that will protect all of us."
WATCH | Dr. Joss Reimer talks about reasons to be optimistic despite arrival of omicron:
The deaths reported Wednesday are two men in their 90s — one from the Southern Health region linked to the outbreak at Third Crossing Manor and one from the Winnipeg health region linked to the outbreak at Grace Hospital in the 4 North surgery unit.
The province also provided additional data on the four people whose deaths were reported on Tuesday:
- A man in his 40s from the Northern Health Region.
- A man in his 60s from the Southern Health region.
- A man in his 70s from the Southern Health region.
- A man in his 80s from the Southern Health region, linked to the outbreak at Third Crossing Manor.
The total number of deaths in Manitoba caused by the virus is now 1,321. There are 1,383 active cases and 65,295 people have recovered.
The provincial test positivity is holding steady at 5.2 per cent. In Winnipeg, the rate is 2.5 per cent.
On Tuesday, 3,082 COVID-19 tests were done.
A total of 143 people are in hospital with COVID-19. Among the 93 with active cases, 46 people are unvaccinated and 45 are fully vaccinated; two are partly vaccinated.
There are 96 Manitobans in intensive care units, including 24 who have COVID-19. The pre-pandemic baseline was 72 ICU beds.
However, when it comes to the most severe outcomes, the divide is much wider. Among COVID-19 patients in intensive care with active cases of the virus (17), 15 are unvaccinated and two have at least two doses.
An outbreak has been declared in the medicine unit at Selkirk Regional Health Centre.
Meanwhile, the following outbreaks are considered over:
- Medicine unit of Portage District General Hospital.
- Neepawa Health Centre.
- Grade 5 and 6 class at Winnipeg's Ralph Maybank School.
- Grade 2 class at Winnipeg's École Sacré-Coeur.
Enforcement update
The province also gave an update Wednesday on public health order enforcement.
A total of 87 warnings and 17 tickets were issued for the week of Nov. 22 to 28.
There were two fines of $8,550 for people who failed to comply with the Federal Quarantine Act.
Eleven tickets of $298 were given to people who failed to wear a mask in an indoor public place, and four $1,296 tickets were given to individuals for breaking other public health orders.
As of Nov. 28, there have been 2,341 fines totalling $3,329,761 in the province.
WATCH | Full news conference on COVID-19 | December 1, 2021:
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