On February 4, 2021, Premier Brian Pallister and Dr. Brent Roussin, Manitoba’s chief provincial health officer, announced that the province is considering easing more of the Covid-19 restrictions, while continuing to prioritize the needs of the health- care system, and protecting Manitobans from the risks of COVID-19 and new variants.
The Pas and District Chamber of Commerce is encouraged by this announcement as it will allow northern businesses to be open similar to ones in the southern regions of the Province
While Manitoba will remain in Code Red status, the province is considering changes to the following for all of Manitoba:
- Allowing food services, including restaurants and lounges, to reopen at 25 per cent capacity with closure time of 10 p.m., limited to patron groups ofhousehold members
- Allowing personal services, including nail salons and tattoo parlours, to reopenat 25 per cent capacity with adequate physical distancing, enhanced personal protective equipment measures and requirements to collect information for contact tracing purposes
- Allowing gyms to reopen at 25 per cent capacity for one-on-one and individual training sessions with adequate physical distancing, with no groupclasses;
- Allowing places of worship to reopen at a maximum of 10 per cent capacity or50 people, whichever is lower
- Allowing libraries to reopen at a maximum of 25 per cent capacity, limitedto patron groups of householdmembers
- Allowing organized outdoor sports to resume for games or practices (noteam tournaments)
- Clarifying that addictions support and treatment groups can operatewith adequate physical distancing measures inplace
- Allowing the film industry to resume work, with safety protocols inplace
- Opening public washroom facilities with 25 cent capacity and enhanced signage
- Increasing capacity for weddings to up to 10 people in addition to theofficiant andphotographer
- allowing photographers to resume operations outdoors and with studiocapacity limited to patron groups of household membersonly
The Province is consulting with the public, and asking for feedback on the proposed changes, which would come into effect next week to replace current public health orders what expire at 11:59 pm on February 12, 2021.
Today, Dr. Roussin stated that that an official statement on the proposed changes will be announced on Tuesday or Wednesday next week. It is expected that the new orders would come into effect after midnight February 13, 2021.
We encourage all northerners to share their views on EngageMB at https://engagemb.ca/restartmb-pandemic-response-system
