COVID-19

Leadership with Kenora’s hospital say if the current streak of physical and verbal abuse continues, they will continue to lose more key members of staff – an especially vital issue during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

President and CEO of the Lake of the Woods District Hospital, Ray Racette, says that unfortunately, the healthcare sector has long-been dealing with reports of abuse, but those reports have steadily increased throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in recent months.

Sadly, Cochrane is reporting two additional COVID-19 deaths for a total of seven. 

As of Monday, October 18 in Alberta, 30 more deaths have been reported bringing the total to 2,976. Victims range in age from 30 to 80. 

A total of 2,181 new cases were reported over a three-day period since Friday. 

Friday saw 783 news cases, Saturday 791 cases, and Sunday there were 607 new cases recorded. 

Hospitalizations dropped to under 1,000 to 981 while ICU admissions also decreased to 225. 

Shared Health says while the data is still rolling in, they can share that they've found so far 95.9 per cent of health care workers are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

New rules

As of Monday morning, many front-facing positions require full vaccination against COVID-19 or to undergo regular COVID-19 testing.

Manitoba's five-day COVID-19 test rate is lowering Monday.

Public health officials advise five new deaths in people with COVID-19 are being reported today:

Manitobans can expect vaccination mandates to continue province-wide throughout the winter.

Dr. Brent Roussin, Manitoba's Chief Public Health Officer, says it is difficult to say for sure, but people can expect the COVID-19 vaccine mandates to remain in place for many more months.

Local pharmacies can now test some patients for COVID-19.

Rapid antigen and molecular COVID-19 tests will be available at Manitoban pharmacies choosing to participate, starting Monday for people travelling out of Manitoba. This is only available for people travelling outside of Manitoba.

"This change builds testing capacity throughout the province, bringing COVID-19 testing to the neighbourhood level and provides travellers with more choices," Health Minister Audrey Gordon says, standing inside Prairie Health Apothecary, a St. Vital pharmacy.

The province says there are plans in place to help care homes anticipating a staffing crisis when the COVID-19 vaccine mandate comes into effect. 

Some vulnerable Manitobans are being added to the third COVID-19 vaccine eligibility list.

First Nations people living on a reserve in Manitoba will be eligible for a third COVID-19 vaccine. A centre working with First Nations leaders and the federal government, the Integrated Vaccine Operations Centre, is being reactivated to oversee this. Third doses can only be given if the second dose was given at least six months earlier.  This will affect approximately 7,200 people as of Monday morning, with the province expecting that number to climb higher as the days go on.

Alberta Health Services put out a statement about the use of Ivermectin to treat symptoms and cases of COVID-19. The organization believes people are resorting to using the medicine due to the misinformation surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The Northwestern Health Unit has reported two new cases of COVID-19, as the active case count increases to four.

The new cases are in the District of Rainy River.

Provincewide, 373 new cases of COVID-19 were reported on Monday.