Health Officials say Manitobans are skirting, and some blatantly not following, the Public Health Orders, spreading COVID-19 and sending people to the hospital.

If numbers do not decrease, the Deputy Chief Public Health Officer says more Public Health Order Restrictions would be coming in the next several days.

Dr. Jazz Atwal says people are hosting sleepovers, having brunches, and other various activities against the current Public Health Orders.

"I want to be very clear today. The third wave is starting. And like Dr. Roussin said Monday, how hard it hits us is going to be up to all of us."

Public Health is seeing Manitobans find ways to skirt health orders, including two neighbours hosting an event in their yards with 10 people on each side. Atwal says in many contact tracing instances they are seeing unknowingly COVID-19 positive people host indoor gatherings, causing those contacts and their households to isolate and in some instances contract the virus.

"I think people need to open their eyes," Atwal says in response to people not taking the pandemic seriously. "When we had dozens of individuals in our ICU and hundreds in our hospitals here in Manitoba during our second wave, those are not make-believe individuals. Those are brothers, fathers, they are daughters, mothers, cousins, they are uncles."

The doctor says people were innocently walking around, living their lives, when they were suddenly impacted. 

"COVID-19 is real. The variants are real. The variants are more impactful to the acute care system than the original strain, or the wild strain, of COVID-19."

He says these variants create higher risks to people of all ages, something Manitoba is facing as variants of concern becomes the main COVID-19 strain.

Public health officials advise that no additional deaths in people with COVID-19 have been reported today.

The current five-day COVID-19 test positivity rate is 5.1 per cent provincially and 4.9 per cent in Winnipeg. As of 9:30 a.m. today, 127 new cases of the virus have been identified. The total number of lab-confirmed cases in Manitoba is 35,815. 
 
Today’s COVID-19 data shows:
• 12 cases in the Interlake–Eastern health region; 
• 29 cases in the Northern health region;  
• six cases in the Prairie Mountain Health region;  
• five cases in the Southern Health–Santé Sud health region; and  
• 75 cases in the Winnipeg health region.
 
The data also shows:
• 1,551 active cases and 33,309 individuals who have recovered from COVID-19;
• 60 people in hospital with active COVID-19 as well as 70 people in hospital with COVID-19 who are no longer infectious but continue to require care, for a total of 130 hospitalizations; 
• 17 people in intensive care units with active COVID-19 as well as 17 people with COVID-19 who are no longer infectious but continue to require critical care, for a total of 34 ICU patients;
• 1,954 laboratory tests were completed yesterday, bringing the total number of lab tests completed since early February 2020 to 615,906; and
• the total number of deaths in people with COVID-19 is 955.

An outbreak has been declared at Middlechurch Personal Care Home in Winnipeg and the Flin Flon Personal Care Home in Flin Flon. The facilities have been moved to the Critical (Red) level on the #RestartMB Pandemic Response System.

An outbreak has been declared over at Unit B5 at St. Boniface Hospital in Winnipeg.

Public health officials advise of a possible exposure to the B.1.1.7 variant of concern at the Thompson Walmart between 3:30 and 5 p.m. on April 6 and the Thompson Safeway between 2 and 3 p.m. on April 10, both located at 300 Mystery Lake Rd. in Thompson. Any person experiencing symptoms since attending these sites should isolate immediately and go for testing.

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