Manitoba experts say circuit breaker lockdown needed to slow spread of COVID-19

Manitoba’s latest round of public health restrictions came into effect on Tuesday, the same day the province set a new record for daily COVID-19 cases counts. However, some experts have been critical of the new orders, calling for a circuit breaker lockdown to slow the spread of the virus.

Manitoba’s latest round of public health restrictions came into effect on Tuesday, the same day the province set a new record for daily COVID-19 cases counts. However, some experts have been critical of the new orders, calling for a circuit breaker lockdown to slow the spread of the virus.

On Monday, the province announced the new public health orders, which implement capacity limits throughout various sectors of Manitoba.

Leading up to this announcement, some health experts were calling for stricter measures to prevent the rising number of COVID-19 cases in the province. These measures include a circuit breaker lockdown, which is a relatively short lockdown with a set end date

One person calling for a lockdown is Aleeza Gerstein, an assistant professor of microbiology and statistics at the University of Manitoba.

She's hearing from the health-care sector that hospitals are overwhelmed.

"I'm very concerned about what happens to our hospitals in the upcoming weeks, and I think we would be prudent to do everything we can to stop those new infections from happening," Gerstein said.

On Tuesday, the province set a new record for daily COVID-19 cases with 825.