Manitoba looks at further loosening of coronavirus public health orders  -  Global News
Posted February 25, 2021 12:50pm

Manitoba is considering loosening COVID-19 public health orders further, removing some limits on outdoor gathering sizes and restaurant capacity, Manitoba’s chief public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin announced Thursday. February 25, 2021

Manitoba’s chief public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin released a list of changes he says health officials are considering Thursday, Feb

Roussin said the proposed changes would go into effect across the province in two phases as early as March 5 and again on March 26.

A full list of the changes being considered include:

Households and gatherings:
  – allowing households the choice of continuing to designate two visitors to their home, or to designate a second household to visit each other, as long as everyone in the house has authorized those designated individuals to visit and families would have to choose either the two-person option or the additional household option;
  – increasing gathering limits at an outdoor place to 10 people including for outdoor non-organized sport or recreation activities; and
  – increasing the capacity size at places of worship for regular religious services to 25 per cent or 100 people, whichever is lower, with physical distancing measures in place and mask requirements.
Business, retail and restaurants:
  – enabling any type of business to be able to operate with the exception of indoor theatres, indoor concert halls, casino and bingo halls;
  – expanding the capacity limits for retail stores, malls and personal services to up to 50 per cent capacity or 250 people, whichever is lower, with other public health measures still in effect;
  – expanding restaurants and licensed premises to up to 50 per cent capacity with requirements to still only sit with members of your household and with other public health measures still in effect;
– allowing businesses to resume operating video lottery terminals, with physical distancing measures and barriers in place; and
  – allowing professional theatre groups, dance companies, symphonies or operas to resume rehearsals as long as rehearsals are not accessible to members of the public.
Recreation and fitness:
  – allowing day camps for children to operate at 25 per cent capacity with a maximum group size of 50, with other public health measures in place;
  – allowing indoor recreation and sporting facilities, such as gyms, fitness centres, rinks, courts, fields, ranges, studios, clubs, pools and centres to open for individual use and group instruction and practices only, with public health measures in place for spectators, common areas and locker rooms for a total capacity of 25 per cent;
  – allowing dance, theatre and music facilities to open for individual instruction and group classes for a total capacity of 25 per cent;
  – allowing gyms and fitness centres to provide group instruction or classes at 25 per cent capacity per class with physical distancing measures in place, in addition to one-on-one instruction and individual workouts for a total facility capacity of 25 per cent;
  – allowing indoor recreational facilities such as arcades, go-kart tracks and children’s facilities to open at 25 per cent capacity with physical distancing measures in place;
  – allowing outdoor amusement parks to open at 50 per cent capacity with physical distancing measures in place; and
  – allowing users of gyms, fitness centres and pools to not wear a mask while taking part in a physical activity, but requiring mask use in other areas of the facility.