COVID-19 Restrictions to End March 15

COVID-19 Restrictions to End March 15

By: Maria Garcia Manzano, AEIC of The Quill

On Friday Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson and Dr. Brent Roussin announced the province will be speeding up the removal of public health orders in the province, with a plan to have all orders in the province, including proof of vaccination requirements and the mask mandate, removed by March 15. The first stage of lifting restrictions will take place on February 15th 2022.

“Manitobans have put their lives on hold, and it’s time that we give them their lives back,” she said. Roussin said based on provincial data, Omicron has peaked in the province and is beginning to subside.

“Just like many times in this pandemic, we’ve had to shift our response based on what we’re seeing with the virus,” he said. “As a result of what we’re seeing now, with the trends and the modeling, we are in a very important transitional phase for the COVID-19 response here.”

While provincial data was not provided during the press conference, it was later uploaded online on Friday. 

UPCOMING CHANGES

Starting Feb. 15, the province will move to the yellow, or caution level, on the pandemic response system. This will eliminate capacity limits in venues such as restaurants, licensed premises, entertainment venues, indoor and outdoor sporting events and gatherings at private residences. The province said capacity limits will be removed for outdoor public gatherings, but will be limited to 50 people indoors unless proof of vaccination is required.

In addition, young people ages 12 to 17 participating in indoor sports and recreation will no longer be required to provide proof of vaccination or recent testing. Close contacts of a person who tests positive for COVID-19 will no longer be required to self-isolate starting on Feb. 15. While self-isolation will be recommended for people who live in a household with others who have symptoms or tested positive for COVID-19, it will no longer be required. However, people who test positive will still need to self-isolate.

VACCINE VERIFICATION & MASK MANDATES ENDING IN MARCH

The province also released a timeline for removing proof of vaccination requirements for places. According to a release, requirements will be removed March 1 in most settings. Mask requirements will be lifted effective March 15. Dr. Roussin said people should still consider wearing a mask indoors when they cannot physically distance themselves, but it will no longer be required after March 15.

When asked if the decision was political or a response to a protest against mandates that has been outside the Manitoba Legislature for one week, Stefanson said, “Not at all.”

“This has been ongoing,” she said. “Dr. Roussin said  that we were looking at probably the spring where we would be removing all of the restrictions, and that was before protesters were out in front of the Legislature.”

BRANDON UNIVERSITY CHANGES

Brandon University students may be wondering if these changes will be affecting how the semester will unfold. On Friday Dr. David Docherty emailed BU students and staff and said the university will remain as is. Meaning that vaccine requirements, masking requirements and physical distancing procedures will remain in effect. Furthermore, all classes will remain online unless they have less than 25 students enrolled. 

Dr. Docherty also said that the university will continue to assess the Covid strategy but that no major changes to the university’s policies will take place this academic term.