Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - October 6, 2020, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE A4 A 4 TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2020 ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COMNEWS I COVID-19 PANDEMIC Winnipeg Regional Health Authority 2019-20 Annual General Meeting Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this meeting is being held virtually via Zoom. Registration is not required. Online, there will be an opportunity to ask questions live during the AGM. If you plan to call in, please submit your questions before the AGM to agm@wrha.mb.ca by Oct. 26 at 4 p.m. Date: Oct. 27, 2020 Time: 2 – 3 p.m. Webinar link: http://bit.ly/WRHAAGM2020 Phone details: Phone number: (833) 955 1088 (Toll-free) Meeting ID / Webinar ID: 682 9756 3063 Webinar Passcode / Password: 505596 F ACING mounting pressure to re-duce long waits for COVID-19 screening, Manitoba Health Min- ister Cameron Friesen promised new increased testing capacity “in a matter of days.” The measures will include increas- ing throughput at current sites and adding new test sites, he said. “We know there are Manitobans who are saying they are waiting for service at those sites. That is a concern to us,” Friesen told a news conference Mon- day. “We are doubling the number of sites in Winnipeg over the next few weeks.” For weeks, Winnipeggers have wait- ed hours in line to receive a nose swab to screen for COVID-19 — frequently only to be turned away after a screen- ing site had reached its capacity for the day. Asked how Manitoba wound up in this situation, Friesen said other juris- dictions are facing the same pressures. “Why is Kitchener (Ont.), why is Edmonton, why is Saskatoon, why is Montreal dealing with these issues? These are issues that are common to all provinces,” he said. Earlier in the pandemic, elective surgeries were put on hold, freeing up staff to be redeployed elsewhere. Now many of these health workers are back at their old jobs. “The same people who are asking for (additional) screening sites are also asking for their hip or their knee sur- gery or their cataract surgery or their endoscopy procedure to be done. And we have said yes to all,” Friesen said. Asked if a shortage of nurses was standing in the way of increased screening capacity, the minister said: “It’s a variety of factors, not just one factor.” NDP Leader Wab Kinew said the province knew long ago it would re- quire increased testing capacity in the fall. Kinew said Monday he believes the main problem is a reluctance on the part of the cost-conscious Pallister government to spend the money neces- sary to get the job done. “This is a slow-moving train that has been coming down the tracks at us for more than six months,” the Oppos- ition leader said. “It’s inexcusable and it’s indefensible that the government doesn’t have an answer on testing af- ter so long.” If Friesen is looking for creative ideas, Kinew said his party has sev- eral. “We could bring in fast-tracked inter- national accreditation for people who are nurses in other countries and are working here as health-care aides. We could bring back retired nurses. If this pandemic is going to last a year or two, why aren’t we training more people? There’s a ton of things we could be doing,” but the province doesn’t seem willing to pay for them, he said. “Most of the solutions involve hir- ing more people and this government seems to be dead set against having more people working in the public sphere.” Friesen said the government is look- ing at being “very creative” in how it tackles the capacity issue, although he offered few hints at what those innova- tions might entail. The province named a “point per- son” last week to spearhead its analy- sis of the problem, he said. Health regions are being asked to explore how they might beef up staff- ing at screening sites, how they can lengthen operating hours at the sites and how the centres can be more effi- cient, the minister said. Already, he noted, the new screening facility at 1181 Portage Ave. has seen its daily capacity rise to 100 swabs a day from 75. On Monday, the province announced 2,313 coronavirus laboratory tests were completed Friday, 2,070 on Satur- day, and 1,235 on Sunday. Chief provincial public health offi- cer Dr. Brent Roussin said private and public labs in Manitoba can now pro- cess 3,000 COVID-19 tests per day. — with files from Carol Sanders larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca Report wait times for COVID-19 testing sites with our tracker wfp.to/covidwait LARRY KUSCH Province moves to double city’s COVID-19 test sites: Friesen LOOKING for a local face mask vendor online, you scrounge Kijiji and Face- book Marketplace and come across a seller advertising personal protective equipment at a fair price. You inquire, and quickly hear back they’d be happy to send goods your way, but require payment upfront — preferably through e-transfer or a cryptocurrency. While the conversation would end there for many, the Winnipeg Police Service’s financial crime unit has re- ceived reports of COVID-19-related scams “in the hundreds” during the pandemic, according to WPS Sgt. Allan Bell. “(COVID-19) helps to reinforce the separation between the victim and the scammer,” Bell told the Free Press on Monday. “So that the victim thinks, ‘Oh, that sounds reasonable, I can’t do what I usually do because of COVID, so this must be the way they’re doing it,’ and they’re sending remote payments to people that they may not have ordinar- ily done so.” Potential scams run the gamut from online to over the phone to in-person, and businesses and people alike have fallen to fraud attempts. Bell recounted situations where fraudsters will call employees using openly-available in- formation to “prove” they are from the head office of their company, and will say the business is under threat of clos- ure unless the employee pre-pays for PPE allegedly incoming. “Young employees, being young and somewhat impressionable, they don’t want the restaurant to close down. They’re dedicated employees, and they will send the money away only to find out there’s no such shipment or no such testing going on,” Bell said. Even those who may consider them- selves media savvy are liable to fall for some scams, he said. “We’re seeing a demographic shift, where the youngsters who have grown up with it, it’s almost like, ‘Well, it says so on the internet, so it must be true,’” Bell said. “They see it as gospel.” The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, which gathers data on scams, has col- lected 4,141 reports, 2,963 victims, and an estimated $5.6 million lost to domestic COVID-19-related fraud since Aug. 31. A spokesperson for the group said it has logged an increase in reports in March and April, and a plateau in July. Bell said reports to Winnipeg police had “come in waves” in the last eight months. The largest fraud increase reported to the CAFC is tied to identity theft and fraud related to CERB payments — scams that result in redirected benefits payments. Bell said similar CERB scams had been reported to Winnipeg police. While acknowledging many of the fraud attempts are typical scams seen pre-COVID-19, but with a new angle, Bell expected a net increase of scam- ming attempts reported to city police by the end of the year. “The people who are doing these frauds, they see an opportunity to take advantage of somebody, they do it,” he said. “So whether you want to call it COVID, or whether you want to call it SARS, whether you want to call it some other issue that’s going on, they seize on that opportunity because they look at it from a different angle than the regular, honest person does.” Both Bell and the CAFC had similar advice for the public: disengage, re- assess, and listen to your gut. “Research, research research,” the CAFC spokesperson said via email. “Take time to verify, don’t react to ur- gent, high-pressure or coercive demands. Contact local police, visit the CAFC web- site, talk to family members and friends, use the internet to verify to some extent.” malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: malakabas_ Police warn of scams linked to pandemic MALAK ABAS OTTAWA — Canadians forced to miss work because of COVID-19 can start applying for financial support from the federal government this week. The new benefits come amid con- cerns about new lockdowns and job losses as governments try to get a handle on the growing number of new cases and prevent health-care systems from being overwhelmed. They also follow a bitter political fight in Ottawa that saw all parties support the multibillion-dollar suite of new benefits despite misgivings about how it was rushed through Parliament by the Liberal government. “It is vital that Canadians have ac- cess to income support that reflects the impacts the pandemic has on their employment,” National Revenue Min- ister Diane Lebouthillier said in a statement on Sunday. The new caregiver benefit responds to numerous calls since the pandemic started for more support for parents and others who are forced to miss work to care for a dependent due to COVID-19. Women in particular have seen a disproportionate impact on their ca- reers and earnings because of the pan- demic, with many shouldering much of the burden of child care and home schooling. Canadian households can apply for $500 per week for up to 26 weeks when one person misses more than half a week of work because they have to care for a child because of the pan- demic. That includes children whose schools or daycares are closed due to COVID-19, and children who are forced to miss school or daycare be- cause they have contracted the virus or may have been exposed. The benefit, which Canadians can apply for through the Canada Revenue Agency, also applies to people forced to miss work to care for family members whose specialized care is unavailable due to COVID-19. The federal government anticipates 700,000 Canadians will apply for the caregiver benefit. Canadians can also access a new sick-leave benefit that pays up to $1,000 over two weeks for those unable to work because they have contracted COVID-19 or are forced to self-isolate because of the virus. — The Canadian Press WHILE one Manitoba First Nation may have avoided a coronavirus outbreak in its community, another is evacuating some residents and isolating others af- ter a flurry of positive tests. Nineteen people in Little Grand Rapids, located 268 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg, near the On- tario border, have tested positive for COVID-19 in the wake of events at the community’s recreation centre more than a week ago. Meanwhile, at York Factory First Nation, which feared an outbreak af- ter seven members of a family tested positive when one became infected while receiving medical treatment in Winnipeg, 66 tests of community members who came into contact with them have tested negative. Another 30 tests, of people who came forward saying they, too, had been in contact, are being analyzed in Winnipeg. Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak Grand Chief Garrison Settee said Monday he credits the York Factory chief and council for taking the bold action necessary to immediately lock- down the community, located some 700 km north of the city, when the positive cases became known in late September. “They did a good job,” Settee said. “The lockdown did a lot when it comes to keeping people stationary.” However, Settee said the federal government needs to do more to help First Nation communities with their chronic shortages of housing and in- adequate medical care and facilities. “Because of overcrowded housing, we are the most vulnerable and at risk,” he said. “Most houses only have one bathroom and that is a risk in itself — everyone has to use the same bathroom in a house... and we have to make concrete steps for health care. We can no longer be so far behind the rest of Canadian society. “Our communities have pandemic plans, but we don’t have the resources or medical personnel... you can’t just talk about it, you have to have action.” NDP MP Niki Ashton (Churchill— Keewatinook Aski) said the entire northern Manitoba region remains vulnerable to COVID-19 as long as the numbers go up in the capital city. “People have no choice but to go to Winnipeg for essential medical services,” Ashton said. “And when you get home, how does someone self- isolate in a home that’s overcrowded because of the ongoing housing crisis on First Nations? “The federal and provincial govern- ments need to work with communities on prevention and mitigation now.” As for the Little Grand Rapids situ- ation, Grand Chief Arlen Dumas, of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, said Monday there could be others who will test positive elsewhere, because there were event attendees from other communities. Dumas said several of the positive cases have been airlifted to Winnipeg, while others are isolating in the com- munity. “We’ll just have to wait and see how things develop.” Little Grand Rapids leadership have told all community members to stay at home, except if they need medical care or need testing because of symp- toms. One person from each household can go to the store for essential items. Melanie MacKinnon, head of the Ongomiizwin-Indigenous Institute of Health and Healing at the University of Manitoba, and a partner of the Manitoba First Nations COVID-19 Pandemic Response Coordination Team, said contact investigations are still ongoing at Little Grand Rapids. “We expect to find more contacts and probably find additional cases,” MacKinnon said. “It has only been 48 hours since the team was deployed.” MacKinnon said she doesn’t know what the event was at the recreation centre, but it followed provincial guidelines. “It was a gathering still within the provincial orders,” she said. “It was less than 50 people, but it was over a four-day period. It’s important to note the guidelines were followed, but a symptomatic case attended.” Elsewhere, Nisichawayasihk and O- Pipon-Na-Piwin Cree Nations imposed partial lockdowns. In statements, NCN, which said a positive case in Thompson may have been in contact with community mem- bers, urged its residents to stock up on essentials. OPCN, which said some community members had been in con- tact with the positive case, said “expect a full lockdown in the coming days.” kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca Little Grand Rapids grapples with outbreak KEVIN ROLLASON MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Manitoba Health Minister Cameron Friesen promised increased testing capacity. The measures will include increasing throughput at current sites and adding new test sites. Federal support for sick workers now available A_04_Oct-06-20_FP_01.indd A4 10/5/20 10:36 PM ;