NewsNow
The province is suspending grade 12 exams in June once again this year.
Manitoba Education sent a letter to superintendents and principals informing them of the decision.
Suspending the June exams allows teachers in the province to continue focusing on COVID-19 learning and the mental health and wellbeing of students.
Earlier this month, the province suspended grade 12 provincial tests for English and math, due to pandemic related difficulties.
Education Minister Cliff Cullen says they’re still expecting teachers to be able to evaluate their grade 12 students with some sort of exam or test.
- Details
- Contributed by Isaac Wihak
The Manitoba government is announcing another $50 million in school funding in addition to the $160 million announced in last year’s budget.
The province says they’ve set aside more than $24 million for seven future school sites including two in the Brandon School Division.
The funding will also be used for structural renovations including roof replacements, mechanical systems, and accessibility upgrades.
The province says they are on track to fulfill its 20 New Schools Guarantee over 10 years.
- Details
- Contributed by Tess Kovach
There were 198 new cases of COVID-19 and 5 more deaths due to the virus announced on Thursday.
Another death has been reported at the McCreary/Alonsa Health Centre — a man in his 80s. It’s the sixth death reported at this facility during this outbreak.
Province Cautiously Changes Health Orders
Changes to the public health orders have been announced and will take effect Saturday, Jan. 23 for all regions in Manitoba, except for the north.
Roussin explains that current high COVID case numbers and test positivity rates in northern Manitoba means the province “is not yet in a position to ease restrictions in this region”.
The new health orders will last for three weeks — expiring Feb. 12 — and the entire province will remain in code red.
All previous health orders will remain in effect, with the following changes announced today:
Household Limits
Under the new rules, two people may be designated to visit a household. Outdoor visits of up to five people (plus members of a household) on private property like a backyard, will also be permitted under the new orders.
Funerals may have up to 10 people in attendance, in addition to the officiant.
Retail Stores
The “essential items” list has been scrapped, and the new orders allow all stores to open to sell their products — as long as physical distancing is maintained with occupancy limits of 25%, or 250 people, whichever is lower.
Health & Personal Services
The province says orders are being expanded to allow for the operation of basic services that promote physical and mental health for Manitobans. That means non-regulated health services, such as pedorthists and reflexologists, can reopen with adequate physical distancing and requirements to collect information for contact tracing purposes.
Barber Shops & Hair Stylists
When the new orders take effect on Saturday barbershops and hairstylists may reopen at 25% capacity with adequate physical distancing and requirements to collect information for contact tracing purposes.
Some notable things left off the list? In-restaurant dining, gyms, fitness centres and nail salons are still mandated to remain closed under the orders.
Today’s COVID Numbers In Manitoba
The current five-day COVID-19 test positivity rate is 9.2% provincially and 6.6% in Winnipeg. The total number of lab-confirmed cases in Manitoba is 28,089.
The provincial data shows 3,205 active cases and 24,091 individuals who have recovered from COVID-19.
There are 125 people in hospital with active COVID-19 as well as 143 people in hospital who are no longer infectious but continue to require care (268 hospitalizations total).
There are 23 people in intensive care units with active COVID-19 as well as 11 people who are no longer infectious but continue to require critical care (34 ICU patients total).
The total number of deaths due to COVID-19 is 793.
Today’s COVID-19 data shows:
• nine cases in the Interlake–Eastern health region
• 105 cases in the Northern health region
• 17 cases in the Prairie Mountain Health region
• 13 cases in the Southern Health–Santé Sud health region
• 54 cases in the Winnipeg health region
According to the province’s data, there are active cases in the following Parkland health districts: Dauphin (5), Riding Mountain (2), Porcupine Mountain (54), Duck Mountain (6), Asessippi (7), Little Saskatchewan (4), Whitemud (1), and Agassiz Mountain (36). Brandon has 54 active cases.
In the Interlake, the Eriksdale/Ashern health district has 64 active cases, while Fisher/Peguis has 59.
Public health officials advise five additional deaths in people with COVID-19 have been reported today including:
• a female in her 60s from the Northern health region
• a male in his 80s from the Winnipeg health region, linked to the outbreak at Poseidon Care Centre
• a male in his 80s from the Prairie Mountain Health region, linked to the outbreak at the McCreary/Alonsa Health Centre
• a male in his 60s from the Southern Health–Santé Sud health region
• a female in her 90s from the Southern Health–Santé Sud health region, linked to the outbreak at Salem Home
- Details
- Contributed by Matt Hamel
A man is facing multiple weapons charges after a traffic stop in Portage la Prairie on Tuesday.
On Jan. 19 at around 8:15 p.m. RCMP were on patrol on 8th Street NW in Portage when they came across a pickup truck with an expired license plate.
Police were made aware of the vehicle after a report was filed the day before.
After pulling over the truck, officers noticed two firearms inside, one of which was a sawed-off semi-automatic shotgun.
The driver of the truck, 30-year-old Stewart Young from Winnipeg, was arrested on scene and will face charges including possession of a prohibited weapon, and two counts of unsafe storage of a firearm.
- Details
- Contributed by Tess Kovach
Dauphin’s Animal Control Officer Todd Tarrant tells CKDM the trapping effort to catch a fisher spotted in the city is still ongoing.
Tarrant says more traps have now been set around Dauphin to catch the fisher — a large weasel-like predator with a reputation for harming small pets.
He said on Thursday he's optimistic the trapping effort will be successful within the next week.
Animal Control tells CKDM the locations of the traps are being kept confidential to avoid any interference with the trapping effort.
Updates to follow.
- Details
- Contributed by Matt Hamel
Health and Seniors Care Minister Heather Stefanson has announced that 89 drugs have been added to the provincial formulary. 81 generic medications are included in this announcement.
Stefanson says this will help Manitobans with a number of conditions and disorders pay for their prescription medications.
“Medications can be costly and by adding these drugs to the formulary, we are providing better access and lessening the financial burden so patients can focus on being well.”
Some of the drugs that have been added include:
- Emerade – for the emergency treatment of anaphylactic reactions;
- Ozempic – for the treatment of Type 2 diabetes mellitus;
- Tegsedi – for the treatment of polyneuropathy in patients with hereditary transthyretin amyloidosis;
- Triamcinolone Hexacetonide – for the treatment of pediatric chronic inflammatory arthropathies;
- Humira – for the treatment of polyarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis and pediatric Crohn’s disease;
- Inlyta – for the treatment of kidney cancer;
- Lynparza – for the treatment of ovarian cancer;
- Xalkori – for the treatment of ROS-1 rearranged non-small cell lung cancer; and
- Try-Jordyna-21 – a generic form of a name-brand birth control pill.
Patients are required to meet pharmacare criteria to be eligible for coverage. You can search for the drugs covered by the Manitoba Pharmacare Program here.
- Details
- Contributed by Isaac Wihak
There were two separate incidents for the Dauphin Fire Department to respond to yesterday afternoon.
Just before 2 p.m. firefighters responded to a commercial fire alarm sounding on Whitmore Ave. W.
It was determined to be a false alarm, there was an error on the part of the alarm monitoring company.
Then a second dispatch was received just after 2:30 for a two-vehicle collision on Main St. S.
There weren’t any injuries from that incident.
Emergency crews had cleared the scene just after 3 p.m.
- Details
- Contributed by Isaac Wihak
A woman from Dauphin was back in court on Tuesday in connection with a death in October.
43-year-old Ramona Tanner, who's being charged with manslaughter, was remanded in custody to April 15th.
On October 25th, Dauphin RCMP responded to a report of an injured, unconscious man at a home.
The 26-year-old man was pronounced dead on the scene.
- Details
- Contributed by Isaac Wihak
Public health officials announced 154 new cases of COVID-19 in Manitoba on Wednesday.
Another six deaths due to the virus are also being reported, including a woman in her 90s from the McCreary/Alonsa Health Centre in Prairie Mountain Health. The other five deaths are all individuals from the Winnipeg health region.
Today the outbreak at the Grandview Personal Care Home was declared over. Since the outbreak was first declared on October 30th — a total of 37 cases were identified, with 25 cases among residents and five deaths.
Today the province is also announcing the debut of a new vaccine dashboard. It will be updated daily at Noon with statistics on the number of doses administered, demographics, etc.
At this time, the dashboard shows 1,902 individuals in the Prairie Mountain Health region have received their first vaccine dose — while 22,365 doses have been given out province-wide.
Today’s COVID Numbers In Manitoba
The current five-day COVID-19 test positivity rate is 9.5% provincially and 6.7% in Winnipeg. The total number of lab-confirmed cases in Manitoba is 27,893.
The provincial data shows 3,137 active cases and 23,968 individuals who have recovered from COVID-19.
There are 129 people in hospital with active COVID-19 as well as 144 people in hospital who are no longer infectious but continue to require care (273 hospitalizations total).
There are 25 people in intensive care units with active COVID-19 as well as 11 people who are no longer infectious but continue to require critical care (36 ICU patients total).
The total number of deaths due to COVID-19 is 788.
Today’s new COVID-19 cases are from the following health regions:
• 18 cases in the Interlake–Eastern health region
• 70 cases in the Northern health region
• eight cases in the Prairie Mountain Health region
• 10 cases in the Southern Health–Santé Sud health region
• 48 cases in the Winnipeg health region
According to the province’s data, there are active cases in the following Parkland health districts: Dauphin (5), Riding Mountain (1), Porcupine Mountain (54), Duck Mountain (6), Asessippi (6), Little Saskatchewan (3), Whitemud (1), and Agassiz Mountain (37). Brandon has 59 active cases.
In the Interlake, the Eriksdale/Ashern health district has 66 active cases, while Fisher/Peguis has 54.
- Details
- Contributed by Matt Hamel
The Dauphin and District Chamber of Commerce has sent a letter to Premier Brian Pallister and Dr Brent Roussin.
The executive director of the Dauphin Chamber, Stephen Chychota, says they’re voicing their concerns over the treatment of small businesses.
“Expressing a bit of our concerns for the small businesses and how they’ve been treated during this code red and lockdown, and wanting to encourage that after Friday, once they’ve proposed that there could be more changes, that they do follow through with opening up some businesses again.”
Chychota says they’ve also written up a letter for businesses to send to Pallister and Roussin. It’s very similar to the letter the chamber sent off but includes spaces for businesses to put their name on, so they can be a part of the group message but don’t have to create their own letter.
A link to that letter can be found here.
Stephen hopes the provincial government continues to follow through on the proposed changes to the code red restrictions on Friday.
“The ability to get rid of the essentials/non-essentials list, I think across the board for consumers and retail, everyone will just really enjoy that. It’s a very difficult process to navigate, and I commend the retailers for a good job on going through that and doing the best they can for what they had to go through on that one.“
He adds that other businesses being able to start opening their doors means a lot because of how long code red has lasted.
- Details
- Contributed by Isaac Wihak
Manitoba has been told to expect another reduction in the amount of Pfizer vaccines for the second time in days.
The province initially planned on being able to use 18,720 doses between now and the end of the month. Now, the province has been told to expect half of that amount, and further reductions could come in February.
Health and Seniors Care Minister Heather Stefanson said in a statement this is incredibly disappointing news.
“Our province is working hard to plan and prepare for this massive immunization campaign but the level of uncertainty caused by missed or reduced vaccine shipments will affect our work in the weeks ahead but please be assured, we are fully equipped to adjust to the changing circumstances.”
Dr Joss Reimer says the Vaccine Implementation Task Force is carefully reviewing the revised vaccine reductions and will have a more detailed update soon.
A number of factors have to be taken into consideration such as how many first-dose bookings can be made, how many second doses are needed for full protection, and how these plans fit into what is now an unpredictable supply for the weeks ahead.
Reimer says safety will not be sacrificed for speed.
“At this point, our call centre remains open for eligible Manitobans to book their appointment but this may change based on the number of vaccines we receive.”
- Details
- Contributed by Isaac Wihak
