Things are changing rapidly as the omicron variant spreads throughout Manitoba. Just a few days after the previous health orders were released, Premier Heather Stefanson and Dr. Brent Roussin take the podium again to announce additional restrictions being put into place.

This is a move that was widely expected, as we have been seeing record numbers of cases in the province almost daily this past week. Today, December 29, saw 947 new cases of COVID-19 in Manitoba, with a provincial 5-day test positivity rate of an unprecedented 24.2 percent. Dr. Roussin indicates this is also an underreporting of the numbers, as an increased demand for testing has meant increased wait times at testing sites and a subsequent delay in test results.

The test positivity rate is dramatically higher than we’ve seen it before, but that is at least in part due to the fact that people are being given rapid tests to take at home and only those who test positive are brought in for PCR testing, where before PCR testing would have been done for all of those individuals. Omicron is accounting for over 75% of positive tests at this point.

One of the primary changes in these amendments to the health orders is a reduction of capacity across the board in public spaces, both indoors and outdoors, to 50% of capacity or 250 people, whichever is less. This applies to gatherings of vaccinated individuals. Gatherings that include one or more unvaccinated individuals are still under the previous restrictions. All other restrictions announced in the previous orders are also still in place, including those that pertained to gatherings on private property, sporting events, and cultural and religious gatherings.

The other big change is that on all licensed premises, liquor sales must end at 10 pm daily. This is of particular note as it comes ahead of annual new year’s eve celebrations.

These orders are in place until January 11.