'We need to lock down': Manitoba doctors react to updated public health restrictions
CBC
Doctors on the front lines of Manitoba's pandemic fight say updated public health restrictions announced Monday don't go far enough and officials seem to be making a bad bet COVID-19 won't overwhelm the health-care system in coming weeks.
"I feel like I'm on a ghost ship right now," said Dr. Jill Horton, a general internist at Winnipeg's Health Sciences Centre.
"Overall there's just a bigger picture here that feels like it is being missed. And I feel somewhat despondent right now, like I'm sure … many Manitobans do."
On Monday, the province reported eight new COVID-19-related deaths and 2,154 cases for a three-day period since Christmas Eve.
Officials reported a pandemic-record 785 cases on Christmas Day, 694 on Boxing Day and 675 on Monday. The soaring case counts come amid a backlog of more than 11,000 laboratory tests for the disease.
The updated restrictions, which came into effect at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, mean gatherings must not exceed 50 per cent of the usual capacity of the space, or 250 people, whichever is less.
Just before Christmas, gathering limits were slightly more relaxed for people who are vaccinated — they were set at 50 per cent but with no capacity limit.
Chief Provincial Public Health Officer Dr. Brent Roussin said the new limits are meant to ensure patrons are properly distanced.
He asked the public to continue limiting their contacts and said at least three-quarters of all cases in the province are linked to the extremely contagious Omicron variant.
With Winnipeg's test positivity rate currently at 21.1 per cent, coupled with the testing backlog, Horton said thousands of COVID-19 cases are being missed.
If the current case counts translate into a wave of patients needing intensive care in hospital, that will overtax available resources, she said.
"We know that we are not going to be able to cope with that," Horton said.
"We need to lock down," said Dr. Eric Jacobsohn, an intensive care physician in Winnipeg and professor at the University of Manitoba's Max Rady College of Medicine.
"So the question is, why aren't we locking down?" Jacobsohn told CBC News.
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