Health officials in Manitoba say they are tentatively planning to ease social distancing restrictions in the coming weeks.

"We're going to look at certain non-essential businesses, while others will remain closed," Chief Public Health Officer Brent Roussin said in his daily COVID-19 update Wednesday.

However, Roussin says this won't be a return to normal, "there will be a new normal for the foreseeable future."

"We'll need to continue our social-distancing strategies although we'll be able to ease some of the restrictions," he explains. "We're going to reopen things, we're going to do so very cautiously and follow our numbers."

So far, Roussin says their strategies have been working, and Manitoba has been spared significant community-based transmission of COVID-19 or outbreaks in care homes.

As of Wednesday morning, two new COVID-19 cases were identified, bringing the total in Manitoba to 257. The number of deaths remain at six. 154 individuals have recovered from COVID-19.

There were 440 laboratory tests performed on Tuesday. A total of 21,601 tests have been performed since early February.