Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - September 21, 2021, Winnipeg, Manitoba C MHK PAGE A3 Winnipeg Free PressCOVID-19 PANDEMIC A3 TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 21, 2021 ASSOCIATE EDITOR NEWS: STACEY THIDRICKSON 204-697-7292 • CITY.DESK@FREEPRESS.MB.CA • WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COMCOVID-19 AT A GLANCE Cases: MANITOBA Confirmed: 59,759 Resolved: 57,956 Deaths: 1,205 Active: 598 CANADA Confirmed: 1,581,910 Resolved: 1,508,657 Deaths: 27,434 Active: 45,819 (As of 6 p.m. Monday) The latest from Manitoba: • Provincial health officials reported 42 new cases of COVID-19 Monday and two new deaths. Of the 42 cases, 26 were in unvaccinated people, four were partially vaccinated and 12 were fully vaccinated. Fifteen of the new cases are from Winnipeg, 14 are from Interlake-Eastern, two are from the Northern health region, two are from Prairie Mountain and nine are from Southern Health. The two new deaths are a woman in her 70s and a man in his 60s, both from the Interlake-Eastern region. There are currently 598 active cases of COVID-19 in Manitoba. Fourteen people are in intensive care, of 66 hospitalized cases. The five-day test positivity rate is 2.3 per cent provincewide. • The province has closed dine-in service at two local restaurants run by the same owners for defying public health orders by allowing unmasked and unvaccinated patrons to eat inside. Monstrosity Burger and Tuxedo Village Family Restaurant, both at 2090 Corydon Ave., were issued the order Monday. The burger restaurant confirmed the closure on its Instagram page. “Until we talk again to our attorneys tomorrow and discuss our game plan we will not have dine in. I wont (sic) let my wife go to jail, sorry!" reads the post. Vaccine eligibility: • All Manitobans born on or before Dec. 31, 2009 are eligible to schedule a first-dose vaccine appointment. There must be a minimum of 28 days between receiving the first and second shots. The latest from elsewhere: • The U.S. death toll from COVID-19 has now surpassed that of the 1918 influenza pandemic, which experts say was an avoidable event after the arrival of vaccines. Deaths in the country to date total 675,446, according to Johns Hopkins University, compared to 675,000 in from the 1918 outbreak. COVID-19 vaccines, developed in record time, have been passed up by about 70 million Americans. Quote: “To have so many people who have died with modern medicine is distressing... The number we are at represents a number that is far worse than it should be in the U.S." — Eric Topol, director of the Scripps Translational Research Institute, on the massive death toll of COVID-19 in the U.S. COVID-19 in Manitobal.lo^ 59,759 cases to date 14 day increase 1 deaths ▲ today ^ 7.1% 1,205 deaths to date 14 day increase 13,746 dosesA 0.5% in previous 14 days 14 day increase 1,013,301 doses 86.2% cumuiative vaccinations 12+ popuiation Vaccination percentages may differ from provincial estimates due to discrepancies in population projections and published vaccination counts. SOURCE: MANITOBA HEALTH (2021-09-20) Longtime physician warns current climate has many colleagues weighing future optionsWinkler MD fears exodus of docs JULIA-SIMONE RUTGERS A WINKLER physician is concerned the region could lose doctors if attitudes towards COVID-19 and vaccination in the community don’t change. “I was getting a sense from many of my colleagues that they were getting quite frustrated with the lack of support from the patients in our community,” Dr. Eric Lane said Monday, describing the current situation as a “low point” in his more than three decades of work. “I was getting concerned that a number were looking at potentially moving away and going to a place where their advice was taken more seriously.” After 32 years working at Winkler’s C.W. Wiebe Medical Centre and Boundary Trails Health Centre, Lane decided to speak out publicly in a letter published in the Winkler Morden Voice last Thursday, pleading with residents to take doctors seriously — and protect one another’s health — as burnout and spiking COVID-19 cases take hold of the Southern Health region. “After attending births, deaths, cancers, and other health needs, most of my colleagues and I feel that our advice is no longer valued,” Lane wrote. “From some, our advice is despised.” The vaccination rates in Winkler and the surrounding Rural Municipality of Stanley are the lowest in Manitoba, according to public health data. Just over 40 per cent of Winkler residents and less than 25 per cent of Stanley residents have received at least one dose of the vaccine as the region is experiencing the highest per-capita infection rate Dr. Eric Lane: 'Our advice is no longer valued' in the province. There are currently 18 COVID-19 patients in hospital and three in intensive care in the Southern Health region. “Did you know most of the physicians in this community are not from here?” Lane wrote in the letter. “Most have very few long-term ties here and the current climate has many weighing up their future options. It would be tragic for us to lose what has been achieved thus far.” While he isn’t sure how many physicians are thinking about walking away, Lane noted it would not take many for the health-care system to feel a serious crunch. “It was, in some way, trying to wake people up to think about more than themselves,” he said Monday, referring to the letter. In his early days serving the Win MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Winkler Mayor Martin Harder is urging local doctors not to consider leaving the community. kler area, staff shortages meant he and other physicians were on call 24/7. Progress has been made bolstering the region’s health system since then, but a mass exodus would put significant strain on remaining doctors, and could have a “ripple effect” on other professions in the community, he said. Winkler Mayor Martin Harder said he read Lane’s letter, and is urging frustrated doctors to stay in the area and help change attitudes. “The community does not survive without medical profession in place,” said Harder. “There are people here who have expressed some concern and I’m not aware of any who have left yet, but as a community leader I would urge them not to even consider it.” Lane’s letter was followed by a social media post Saturday from Winkler Police Chief Ryan Hunt decrying the community’s growing divide over masks and vaccines. “Something has to change. The anger and resentment that we are seeing in our community are unacceptable,” he wrote, adding rule-breakers — including those who interfere with law en forcement — should expect to be ticketed. On Monday morning, Premier Kelvin Goertzen said he read Hunt’s post on Facebook and hoped to reach out to the police chief soon to speak about his concerns. “You can feel his frustration,” Goert-zen said, speaking after a news conference at the Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada. “The work that he and other enforcement officers are doing, it’s important work, it’s to keep people safe, and they shouldn’t^ feel their safety is compromised as a result of that.” Goertzen also responded to the concerns Lane wrote about in his letter, saying he is “concerned about healthcare staff across the system.” “There is significant pressure. We’re seeing burnout within the system, and then you add onto that the workload, that mental strain, of getting a lot of pressure from people in the community who don’t necessarily agree with what doctors are recommending,” the premier said. “Those who don’t agree with medical advice, or the advice from the province, you’re going to express your opinion, and we understand that, but don’t express it in a way that’s hurtful, that’s threatening, that’s demeaning. These doctors are the same doctors who have delivered your babies in the past_ the same people who cared for your communities for decades and decades. That level of concern hasn’t changed for them.” — with files from Melissa Martin julia-simone.rutgers@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @jsrutgers Manitoba care home residents eligible for third COVID-19 shot Dr. Marcia Anderson JULIA-SIMONE RUTGERS SENIORS in Manitoba care homes will soon be eligible for COVID-19 booster shots, starting with staff and residents of care homes on First Nations. On Monday, Dr. Joss Reimer, medical lead on the province’s vaccine task force, and Dr. Marcia Anderson, public health lead for the First Nations pandemic response team, said third doses of the vaccine will be made available to 200 residents and 400 staff of 10 First Nations care homes this week. “Throughout this pandemic, the data has shown that First Nations people, as well as older people, face the greatest risk of severe outcomes from COVID-19,” Anderson said. The province declared an outbreak last month at the George M. Guimond Care Centre in Sagkeeng First Nation, primarily among fully vaccinated residents. Two people died and three people were hospitalized. “What we have seen in the pandemic so far, the losses faced by the people of Sagkeeng First Nation, it’s clear why an early expansion to these facilities is needed to protect our people and our communities,” Anderson said, adding staff will be vaccinated to help maintain stable staffing levels in remote communities. Third doses will be made available in October at other care homes, Reimer said. “Third doses should be recommended for those who are moderately or severely immunocompromised, because they are not able to develop as strong immune response to the vaccine compared to the general population,” Reimer said, adding studies have shown overrepresentation in breakthrough cases and hospitalizations for people with compromised immune systems. “The good news is that the studies also show many of these same groups had a much better immune response after three doses.” Reimer said immune response may be slightly weaker for older populations as time goes on and antibody levels naturally fade in the body. “Unfortunately, there is still a lot of the virus circulating in Canada and around the world, so even a normal decrease in antibodies, in a group that already had a somewhat weaker immune response, could translate to more infections and more severe outcomes,” Reimer said. Reimer said the province has not noticed an increase in infections among the care home population yet, however data from countries such as the United Kingdom indicate severe infections could rise in future. Reimer noted young and healthy people have not yet shown evidence of “waning immunity,” adding there is “zero benefit” to a third dose for most of the population. Staff at care homes outside of First Nation communities will not be offered booster shots. Third doses were already available to Manitobans with immunosuppressed conditions, those who want to travel to countries where full vaccination with the same vaccine is required, and those who have received vaccines that haven’t been approved by Health Canada. Meantime, as Pfizer enters the final testing for a small dose of its mRNA vaccine for children aged five to 11, the province is keeping its eye on expanding vaccine eligibility to elementary school-aged children. 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