Manitoba's Chief Provincial Public Health Officer says they continue to work with the Hutterian Safety Council to stress the importance of preventive measures, with respect to COVID-19.

Dr. Brent Roussin made that statement Monday afternoon, after announcing additional positive test results coming from Hutterites in southern Manitoba. According to Dr. Roussin, there are now 20 total cases of COVID-19 from three separate Hutterite colonies in our province.

These are now considered a cluster and are being treated as an outbreak. Dr. Roussin explains an outbreak is defined as more cases than expected. When it is confined to a geographical area, it is called a cluster.

According to Dr. Roussin, many of the 20 cases are linked to one event. That event was a large gathering in Alberta.

Dr. Roussin says they expect more cases to come from these clusters as there are a lot of contacts out there.

"We're going to see more cases related to this," he says. "We're going to see more cases on other colonies as well because there's other colonies that have had contact here."

Dr. Roussin says a lot of Hutterites have been tested, and a lot are self-isolating.

"We're going to do what we can to ensure that these are isolated," says Dr. Roussin. "We want to limit any further transmission from the contacts too, so they should be self isolating at this time."