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EMERGENCY EXTENDED

Will go into effect for another 30 days as province announces 66 new COVID-19 cases

JOSH ALDRICH Winnipeg Sun jaldrich@postmedia.com Twitter: @Joshaldrich03

The province announced one more death and 66 new cases of COVID-19 in Manitoba on Tuesday, 50 of whom were unvaccinated, five partially unvaccinated and 11 fully vaccinated.

With the fourth wave of COVID starting to hit Manitoba, the provincial government extended the state of emergency in an effort to reduce the spread of the coronavirus and its variants. The extension goes into effect on Wednesday and will be in place for 30 days.

“Our government understands the hardships and fatigue associated with the ongoing changes and restrictions,” said Infrastructure Minister Ron Schuler.

“We will continue to adapt and respond to the pandemic, but we need Manitobans to continue to follow the fundamentals to ensure we can move forward on the path of a post-pandemic recovery.”

The state of emergency was first declared on March 20, 2020. Of the new cases, 21 are in Southern health, 17 are in Winnipeg, 11 in Prairie Mountain Health, 11 are in Northern health and six in Interlake-eastern.

Provincial test positivity is 2.3% with 2,360 tests completed on Monday.

Fifty-six percent of all active cases are among the unvaccinated, while 13% are partially vaccinated and 31% are fully vaccinated.

Currently, 84.4% of eligible Manitobans have at least one dose of vaccine and 79.5% are fully vaccinated. There are 1,223 Manitobans booked for vaccinations on Tuesday. There are 35 active hospitalizations, and 24 are unvaccinated, seven are partially vaccinated and four are fully vaccinated. There are currently seven active cases in ICU and six are unvaccinated and one is fully vaccinated.

The RM of Stanley still has the lowest level of vaccination in the province with 23.9% uptake, while Winkler is at 40.8%, Hanover is at 49.2% and North Norfolk is at 52.9%. Overall, the south has a vaccination rate of 65.2% compared to Winnipeg and Northern health regions at 87% and 81.2% vaccinated. Public health officials have administered 1,961,846 doses of vaccine.

BUSINESSES FINED

The province also released its COVID enforcement numbers on Tuesday for the week of Sept. 13-19. They handed out 22 total tickets and 41 warnings on 2,859 calls for $54,574 in total fines.

Dr. Brent Roussin, chief provincial public health officer, said the health orders are necessary to avert the risk of transmission and curbing the fourth wave.

“Certainly the adherence to these orders is necessary if we are to achieve that benefit,” he said. “We are certainly sending that message out that enforcement has to be one such pillar, unfortunately, for this.”

Ten of the tickets were to individual businesses including six to the Tuxedo Village Family Restaurant/monstrosity Burger, which on Monday was ordered to close to dine-in service with another four $5,000 fines being delivered to the operators.

Also receiving one $5,000 ticket each was Canad Inns Destination Centre Windsor Park, Chicken Chef on Main Street in Winkler, Loblaws in Winkler and Toppers Family Restaurant in Winkler.

NEWS

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2021-09-22T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-09-22T07:00:00.0000000Z

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