Manitoba hints at different approach to COVID-19 rules than other Prairie provinces

A top Manitoba health official says the province will not rush to loosen its COVID-19 restrictions simply because some other provinces are doing so.

A top Manitoba health official says the province will not rush to loosen its COVID-19 restrictions simply because some other provinces are doing so.

Dr. Jazz Atwal, the deputy chief public health officer, says Manitoba will look mainly at its own metrics, such as hospital capacity and rates of infection, before deciding whether to make further changes.

The government has relaxed some rules, such as capacity limits on gatherings in private homes and in many public venues.

Those new rules took effect Tuesday and are to remain in place for two weeks.

Atwal says there are encouraging signs -- the number of new hospital admissions and the number of people in intensive care with COVID-19 have dropped.

But intensive care units are still well above pre-pandemic levels and a backlog of surgeries and diagnostic tests has continued to grow.

"Our hospitalization numbers ... probably peaked, I mentioned, about 15, 16 days ago. And our (intensive care) numbers probably peaked about 10 days ago," Atwal said Wednesday.