Manitoba youth must now be immunized against COVID-19 or tested to play indoor sports
CBC
As of today, Manitobans between the ages of 12 and 17 participating in indoor sports will have to either be vaccinated against COVID-19 or regularly tested.
Kids and teens affected by the latest restrictions will need to have proof of either at least one vaccine dose or a negative COVID-19 rapid test from the past 72 hours to play indoor sports.
"The overall goal of that is to ensure that we have as many vaccinated in that age group as possible or tested," Chief Provincial Public Health Officer Dr. Brent Roussin said in an online news conference at the beginning of the month.
Those new rules are an effort to control transmission among children and youth. Public health data shows Manitoba's COVID-19 cases have been increasing most rapidly among people under 20.
The orders apply to all Manitobans aged 12 to 17 entering any indoor sporting or recreation facility as a spectator or to participate.
These facilities include, but are not limited to school gymnasiums, classrooms, multipurpose rooms, and community facilities such as arenas. Indoor practices and competitions are subject to these orders.
Rapid tests will need to be done at participating private pharmacies, not Manitoba's public testing sites, Roussin said.
One Winnipeg parent says she's supportive of the public health orders if it means family and friends who are vaccinated can watch sports.
Lorriann Ludwig's 17-year-old son is starting basketball practice at his school on Monday, but his volleyball team the Westgate Wings clinched the Manitoba High Schools Athletic Association AAAA varsity volleyball championship on Saturday.
Although public health orders stipulate that eligible Manitobans with proof of vaccination can watch indoor sports, sometimes the event host will make the decision to not allow spectators in light of the pandemic. That was true for the volleyball championships.
Luckily, Ludwig was able to watch her son Sammy, who is a setter on the team, win the championship because she is the assistant coach. She couldn't help but feel sad for the team.
"Normally that would be played in front of tons of fans and the whole school," she told CBC News.
"I really hope that with these new public health orders, that it will just open things up, that they'll be allowing spectators and that there'll be more opportunity in high school sports for kids to be able to watch each other play and for that kind of atmosphere in the gym," she said.
Up north in Thompson, Man., Melissa Meston's 13-year-old son plays hockey.
A 36-year-old man has been arrested after allegedly trying to set a fire outside Vancouver City Hall late Friday night, police say.
Calgary city council reversed its decision to close the Inglewood Aquatic Centre Friday.
The Vancouver Police Board says its vice-chair has resigned following statements she posted to social media that were inconsistent with its code of conduct.
Hundreds of people showed up outside Queens Park Saturday afternoon to push back against the Ford government's controversial bike lane bill that would remove certain Toronto bike lanes to help address congestion.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has joined federal cabinet ministers and other politicians in condemning Friday night's anti-NATO demonstration in Montreal, calling the protesters' actions "appalling."
Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations Gary Anandasangaree has formally apologized to Inuit in Nunavik for the federal government's role in the mass killing of sled dogs in the region in the 1950s and 1960s.
High winds and rain caused power outages to hundreds of homes and businesses in Prince County on Saturday.
Northerners will soon see RCMP officers with cameras on their person, as training for the body-worn cameras roll out for Mounties across the country.
Dozens of Indigenous women with a desire to learn how to hunt and to use traditional methods to prepare the animal will meet this weekend for the first-ever all-female deer hunt on Oneida Nation of the Thames territory.
A disgraced real-estate lawyer who this week admitted to pilfering millions in client money to support her and her family's lavish lifestyle was handcuffed in a Toronto courtroom Friday afternoon and marched out by a constable to serve a 20-day sentence for contempt of court, as her husband and mother watched.
A provincial child-care advocacy group says governments need to commit to pushing $10-a-day child care forward in Canada, but a conservative think tank says data shows it isn't working as intended in Newfoundland and Labrador.