WINNIPEG -- One Manitoban with COVID-19 had more than 120 contacts, according to the Manitoba government.
In the province’s latest epidemiology and surveillance report for June 13 to 19, it shows that a case reported in the Northern Health Region this week had 121 contacts – the most contacts of any of the new cases.
As for the maximum number of contacts in the other health regions, a Winnipeg case had 49 contacts, an Interlake-Eastern Health case had 41, a Southern Health case had 31, and a Prairie Mountain Health case had 20 contacts.
“If we look at the whole purpose of the public health restrictions all along [it has] been to decrease the amount of contacts,” said Dr. Brent Roussin, chief provincial public health officer, at a news conference on Monday.
“We know that the more contacts that a case has, inadvertently, will increase the amount of transmission. So the whole purpose of those orders was to reduce the amount of contacts outside of a household.”
Roussin said Manitobans need to follow public health orders because COVID-19 is still in the province.
“We’re still seeing transmission. We’re still reporting cases. We’re still, unfortunately, reporting severe outcomes. We still have people in hospital. So we still need to focus on reducing the amount of contacts as much as we can,” he said.
“If we see significant increases in the amount of contacts we have overall, then yes, we are at risk of seeing an increased amount of cases.”
PLACES OF TRANSMISSION
Roussin noted that as the province sees decreased transmission, it will be able to find the specific locations of COVID-19 transmission.
The surveillance data shows the top setting for COVID-19 transmission in Manitoba is households, which accounts for 61.4 per cent of virus transmission. The other most common settings are social gatherings with 11.6 per cent, workplaces with 10.1 per cent, transportation with 4.6 per cent, and schools with 3.5 per cent.
“We see a lot of household transmission. We see transmission at social gatherings and transmission at certain workplaces as well. Overall, those numbers in all (of) those places have been diminishing,” Roussin said.
He added that though Manitoba is also seeing a decrease in severe outcomes, it doesn’t mean the province is in the clear.
“We’re still quite active with contact tracing, contact, and case isolation and follow-up, because our public health measures aren’t simply public health restrictions,” he said.
“It’s that case identification, the testing. You get tested as soon as you get ill, the isolation and the contact tracing. And of course, what’s most important now is vaccines.”
THE RISK OF INCREASED CONTACTS
Roussin warned that if people start dramatically increasing their number of contacts, the province could see a surge in cases.
“We were in a place to move to that step 1 [of reopening], and you can see that step 1 still has numerous restrictions, still fairly tight restrictions,” he said.
“Because we’re not out of the woods yet, if we start losing sight of this virus and dramatically increasing the amount of contacts we have then we’re certainly at risk of seeing a resurgence of cases.”
He added that even though restrictions have been loosened, people still need to be mindful of COVID-19.
“Those group sizes, they still need to be within those orders. So if it’s public gatherings, it’s 25, but you should still be trying be maintaining some distance in those groups,” Roussin said.
“If you can’t maintain distance, then I’d suggest wearing that mask, and obviously staying home when you’re ill. So there’s a lot of things we can do (to) loosen these restrictions and get more and more enjoyment out of this summer, but at the same time we can stay mindful of this virus, because we do not want to turn around our progress at this point.”
Manitoba risks COVID-19 surge if people increase contacts too much: Roussin - CTV News Winnipeg
Read More
No comments:
Post a Comment