During Friday's COVID-19 update, Chief Provincial Public Health Officer Dr. Brent Roussin announced the Southern Health–Santé Sud health region would be moved to Red, or Critical, on the province's pandemic response system as of Monday, November 9th in order to halt the spread of COVID-19.

"We've been messaging to Manitobans for quite some time about the importance of the fundamentals and to reduce their contacts but as you can see our cases have gone in the wrong direction - we're seeing more cases, more strain on the healthcare system, and so further action is required," said Dr. Roussin.

Changes in the Southern Health region mirror those in the Winnipeg Metropolitan Region including:

- Bars and restaurants will be closed except for take-out and delivery.
- Most retail will be reduced to 25 per cent capacity.
Sports and recreation programming will be suspended.
Gyms and fitness centres will have reduced capacity to 25 per cent and masks will be mandatory, even when exercising.
- Movie theatres and concert halls will close.
Personal services have no change and stay at 50 per cent capacity.
- Faith-based gatherings are reduced to 15 per cent or 100 people, whichever is lower.
-  Non-urgent and elective surgeries and diagnostics will continue at this time. Patients will be contacted directly if their scheduled surgeries or diagnostics tests are affected.Scheduled surgeries in a number of essential and time-sensitive areas will continue to be performed including cancer, cardiac and trauma. Patients will be contacted directly if their scheduled surgeries are affected.
- In-patient visitation to hospitals or health centres will be suspended, with exceptions made on a case-by-case basis for patients receiving end-of-life care, in labour and delivery, as well as in pediatrics.
- Designated family caregivers may continue to visit personal care homes. General visitation may be suspended with exceptions in place for end-of-life care. General visitation to outdoor visitation shelters will be implemented, once operational.

Businesses are also asked to have staff work from home whenever possible.

"It is the intent these new orders will halt the spread of the virus, decrease transmission of the virus in the community," explained Dr. Roussin

Additionally, public health officials are advising the Southern Health–Santé Sud region that anyone who is symptomatic, or has a household member who is symptomatic, the entire household needs to self-isolate pending COVID-19 test results. The symptomatic individual needs to stay in their own room and, if possible, use their own bathroom and not use common areas. Exemptions are in place for asymptomatic household members if they are an essential worker required to wear PPE while at work such as health-care workers or first responders. For information on self-isolation, visit www.gov.mb.ca/covid19/updates/resources.html#collapse2

Dr. Roussin says Manitobans need to act now to reduce their number of contacts which he says can be achieved by staying home as much as possible, leaving for essential reasons only and avoid socializing outside of your household.

"Think about when you go out, especially with the weekend coming on, do you need to go out? Is it an essential reason? Or is it just a natural desire to go out?", he explained, adding this needs to be the focus in the short term. "Remember, it's not going to be like this forever but right now we need to make this change to dramatically decrease the transmission of this virus."

Southern Health joins the Winnipeg Health Region at the Red Level. Winnipeg was moved to Critical Monday, November 2nd.

As these restrictions go into place and in all regions, Manitobans are reminded that compliance and enforcement issues can be reported by visiting www.manitoba.ca/COVID19 and completing the reporting form, or by calling 204-945-3744 or 1-866-626-4862 (toll-free) and pressing option three on the call menu. Increased measures to enforce COVID-19 public health orders were announced yesterday to ensure orders enacted to protect the public during the pandemic are observed, says Dr. Roussin.

The province recently announced the fines for breaching or failing to comply with public health or emergency orders have been increased to $1,296 for individuals and $5,000 for corporations.

Manitobans are still strongly encouraged to focus on these fundamentals to help stop the spread of COVID-19:
Stay home if you are sick or when any member of your family is sick.
Significantly reduce the number of close contacts outside your household, and avoid closed-in or crowded spaces.
Wash/sanitize your hands, cover your cough and physically distance when you are with people outside your household.
If you cannot physically distance, you should wear a mask to help reduce your risk.
Get a flu shot.

Unless recommended by public health officials, only individuals experiencing COVID-19 symptoms should go for testing. Individuals with symptoms are asked to seek testing as soon as possible once symptoms are present. Employers are asked to only send employees for testing if they have symptoms or if testing has been recommended by public health officials.

The online assessment tool can be found at https://sharedhealthmb.ca/covid19/screening-tool/and COVID-19 symptoms can be found at www.gov.mb.ca/covid19/updates/about.html#collapse4.

For up-to-date information on COVID-19 in Manitoba, visit www.manitoba.ca/COVID19.

For up-to-date information on the #RestartMB Pandemic Response System, visit:
https://manitoba.ca/covid19/restartmb/prs/index.html.