Manitoba considering shortening period of isolation as COVID-19 case climb hits critical services

Manitoba is considering shortening the period of isolation for people who catch COVID-19 and their close contacts, the province’s chief public health officer said Wednesday.

Manitoba is considering shortening the period of isolation for people who catch COVID-19 and their close contacts, the province’s chief public health officer said Wednesday.

It comes after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States cut the recommended time asymptomatic people in that country who’ve tested positive should stay home from 10 days to five.

“We’re definitely looking at that, looking at reducing what we define as the isolation period both for people who test positive and also who are named as contacts,” Dr. Brent Roussin said in a media briefing. “We have the benefit of people getting out of isolation sooner … certainly alleviate some of the strain on some sectors by doing that.”

“The risk is we have some people who will still be infectious after that period.”

In addition to health-care workers and businesses, the surge of COVID-19 cases is taking a toll on services such as fire and ambulance where absences due to isolation have reached unprecedented rates.

“That’s had some impacts on our staff rosters with increased absences at higher rates than we’ve ever seen before,” said Christian Schmidt, Chief of the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service.

Schmidt said of the 1,385 WFPS members, 2.8 per cent—which is nearly 40 staff—are currently at some point in their isolation due to a COVID-19 infection.