COVID-19

Public health officials advise 23 new deaths in people with COVID-19 are being reported today:

Cinderella fans will need to wait until the 2022/2023 season to catch La Cenerentola in person.

Manitoba Opera says that are disappointed to postpone the April showing of La Cenerentola, but says they needed to assure everyone is safe.

"It is our responsibility to create a safe working environment throughout the entire run of the show, from the first chorus rehearsal in January until the curtain falls on closing night," Board of Trustees Chair Judith Chambers says. "We were not confident that this would be possible over the next few months."

Though it may seem that COVID-19 hospitalizations and ICU admissions are slowly going down the Northwestern Health Unit doesn’t think the COVID-19 peak has been reached.

In a media briefing on Wednesday (January 27, 2022), Dr. Kit Young Hoon Medical Officer of Health for the NWHU touched on the region's increasing test positivity rate that needs to be monitored.

“That needs to be monitored closely to see if it will eventually come down,” Young Hoon said.

Leadership with the Northwestern Health Unit is reporting a total of 407 active cases of COVID-19 in the region, with three active hospitalizations.

The NWHU’s current 7-day per cent positivity rate is listed at 25.5 per cent.

Currently, they say there are:

- 3 active institutional outbreaks in the region,
- 407 active high-risk cases in the region,
- 3 active NWHU cases in hospital due to COVID-19,

The Northwestern Health Unit is urging eligible residents to book an appointment for their first, second, or booster dose of the COVID-19 vaccine as they will be scaling back larger clinics in early February.

Though the health unit is scaling back clinics, Dr. Young Hoon, Medical Officer of Health for the Northwestern Health Unit reminds people of the effectiveness of the vaccine.

Chief and Council of Wauzhushk Onigum Nation have announced the removal of their checkpoints entering into the community effective midnight February 2, 2022.

“We are now in Step Two of the Ontario Roadmap to Reopen and taking into account the successful vaccination efforts within our community. The Chief and Council have determined the checkpoints are no longer a necessity to help protect our community and the membership,” the Nation said in a prepared statement.

Premier Jason Kenney is headed stateside to speak with governors and U.S. federal officials.

He wants the U.S. and Canadian governments to ease quarantine rules for unvaccinated truckers.

"We don't think there's any compelling health reason for this given that there are millions of Canadians with active Omicron infections, tens of millions of Americans with infections, the vast majority of truckers are vaccinated and the governments had granted a multi-month exemption to this rule, we simply ask them to restore this exemption," Kenney says.

According to a letter sent out today (Thursday, January 27) to parents and guardians of students at Holy Spirit School, a move will be made to at-home learning. 

Starting tomorrow, Friday, January 28 all Holy Spirit classes will move to at-home learning for the next 10 days until Friday, February 4. 

The letter explains that 25 per cent of students were absent yesterday (Wednesday, January 26) and today due to illness. 

Hospitalizations are down in Manitoba, as intensive care rates slightly rise.

There are is a total of 711 hospitalizations, including 594 active cases. This is a decrease of nine total cases.

There are 51 people in intensive care with 44 of those people having active cases. This is an increase of two total cases.

There are 14 new COVID-19 deaths Thursday, bringing the total to 1,538.

The province is calling upon Albertan's to voice feedback on the draft K-6 curriculum and draft social studies blueprint. 

In-person engagement sessions were postponed last fall due to the pandemic and so it has been decided to move the engagement online.

Virtual engagement sessions will be opened to hear the viewpoints of Albertans starting January 31 to February 28 2022.