Manitoba's spike in COVID-19 cases is cluster, not second wave, says top doctor

The surge in new COVID-19 cases over the past two weeks in Manitoba is not a second wave of the pandemic, but it is a strong reminder we are far from being in the clear, the province's chief public health officer says.

On July 13, there was one active case in the province after a 13-day streak of no cases. The total number of cases at the time was 325.

That all changed the following day, when five new cases were announced. Since then, Manitoba has had 80 new cases, one of which led to a death.

Despite the surge in cases, Dr. Brent Roussin, the province's chief provincial public health officer, said he does not classify it as second wave.

"We had a relatively short period with very low numbers, but this transmission is still ongoing around the world," he told CBC Manitoba's Information Radio host Marcy Markusa on Wednesday. "This is another cluster."

Manitoba's total number of cases since mid-March is now 405. Of those, 319 have recovered.

There are 78 active cases, including three people who are in hospital — two of those in intensive care. A total of eight people have died from COVID-19 in the province.

Manitoba has been moving toward reopening its borders and economic activity, with Phase 4 kicking in last Saturday. Premier Brian Pallister had announced a draft plan for Phase 4 that included relaxing the 14-day self-isolation requirement for travellers from eastern and southern Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada.

Pushback from Manitobans prompted the province to postpone that part of the plan.

At the time he announced the draft plan, Pallister said it was important to open things up in order to boost the economy and get people working again.

"We can't live our life fearful," he said then.

However, on Wednesday, Roussin said it's not out of the question that restrictions could be tightened once again for all visitors if the case counts continue to rise.

Back in mid-June, the borders were reopened to people coming to Manitoba from Western Canada, the territories, and Ontario west of Terrace Bay.

"People should be aware that we're monitoring that and things could change with it with out orders," Roussin said. "It kind of goes without saying we've had to all be flexible and adjust to what we're seeing around us.

"So that sure could be an option — that we could again put those self-isolation requirements on again for inter-provincial travel. We want to use the least restrictive means, but we're going to protect the health of Manitobans."

Political pressure?

Asked if he's feeling any political pressure for the economy to be a little bit more open, Roussin said "Public Health's voice is certainly strong and the lead voice on most of these things but … it is a complex situation."

The decision-making process has to consider both public health and the health of the economy because they're intertwined, he said.

"We know that these economics play a major role in health … and so Public Health has to weigh that constantly as well. Health is so much more than just the absence of disease," Roussin said.

"In putting forward recommendations I think that [the province of] Manitoba has been very responsive to Public Health advice."

On mandating masks

As more and more jurisdictions around Canada are mandating the use of masks, Roussin said Manitoba hasn't taken that step because that's another complicated balancing act.

That said, he believes they will soon play a larger role in the province's road to recovery.

"All the way through [the management of the pandemic] we've received concerns on both sides of that issue, that we're too restrictive and that we're not restrictive enough, that we shouldn't use masks and that we should mandate it," he said.

"We hear both sides and we like to hear those voices. We'll continue to engage Manitobans in our decisions."

For now, Roussin said people are being strongly encouraged to wear masks when physical distancing can't be achieved.

"Masks are going to play a bigger role as we move forward but we have to remember that masks are only one part of our multi-layered approach," he said.

"They're not going to get us away from physical distancing. They're not going to be able to get us away from staying home when we're ill and all the precautions that we've been taking. But they are one added measure that we're going to use more and more of."

That will likely happen in the fall, when flu season kicks into a higher gear and schools reopen.

"We know going forward that we can't have people who are showing signs of symptoms going to school or work," he said.

"And we know that because of that, we're going to see absenteeism rates that we're not used to this fall."

Asked if he will direct schools to hire extra custodians and put in portable hand-washing or sanitizing stations, Roussin again backed off from mandating anything.

"We advise enhanced environmental cleaning [and] the ability to have hand hygiene accessible frequently. We would give a broad level advice like this and each school division would implement it," he said.

"Things look different in different places. So we would give the advice on what what needs to occur and then the individual school divisions would know best on how to best implement that in their area."