1 new case of COVID-19 in Manitoba connected with Brandon trucking company cluster
Eight COVID-19 cases are now connected to that workplace, including six employees.
One new case of COVID-19 has been identified in Manitoba as of Friday, connected with an outbreak at the Brandon office of a trucking business.
The total number of people infected with the illness connected with Paul’s Hauling in Brandon is now eight, health officials announced during their daily COVID-19 briefing.
Chief Provincial Public Health Officer Dr. Brent Roussin said six of those cases are employees at the business and two are close contacts of those employees.
The first case of COVID-19 at the trucking company was contracted through community spread, Roussin said.
He said about 11 per cent of cases of the illness in Manitoba so far could not be linked to travel or a known case of COVID-19. In the last week, there have been no new cases of the illness linked to community spread.
On Friday morning, a spokesperson for Sobeys confirmed an employee at the chain’s Safeway gas bar on 18th Street N. in Brandon tested positive for COVID-19. The employee last worked on April 30.
Roussin would not comment on whether that case was related to the outbreak at Paul’s Hauling.
The new case at the Brandon workplace was the only additional COVID-19 case announced in Manitoba on Friday.
The update brings the total number of cases identified in Manitoba to 284, 30 of which are considered active.
Five people with COVID-19 are in hospital in Manitoba; none are in intensive care.
Seven people with COVID-19 in the province have died, and 247 have recovered.
An outbreak of COVID-19 at Winnipeg Health Sciences Centre in March has been declared over by infection prevention and control officials, said Manitoba Shared Health Chief Nursing Officer Lanette Siragusa.
That outbreak was detected in a medicine unit on March 30 and forced at least 70 staff to self-isolate.
Since then, two rounds of incubation periods have passed and most staff are back at work, Siragusa said. There are still a few people recovering at home.
Strategies like restricting visitors in hospitals and restricting patient movement within that medicine unit helped contain the spread of the virus, said Siragusa.
Siragusa said anyone hoping to send Mother’s Day gifts to people in hospitals or personal care homes should check with the facility about what is allowed to be brought in.
She recommended sticking with gifts like food and clothes, and doing virtual visits as much as possible.
On Thursday, 543 laboratory tests for the illness were done, bringing the total number of COVID-19 tests completed in Manitoba to 29,343.
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Roussin said labs in Manitoba are working on antibody tests, and he hopes to provide an update on those efforts soon.
He said though the COVID-19 situation is changing quickly, it is unlikely health officials will be recommending any non-essential international, or even interprovincial, travel this summer.
“It’s tough to give firm advice for what’s going to happen three or four months from now,” he said.
On Friday morning, Health Minister Cameron Friesen announced Manitoba is removing the 30-day limit set in March for prescriptions in the province starting Monday.
Health officials also announced on Thursday that Manitoba will continue ramping up efforts to catch up on the backlog of non-urgent medical procedures that were put on hold in March to make sure the province was ready to handle a possible surge of COVID-19 cases.
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