Thread by @bkives

Manitoba announced 280 new cases of #COVID19 and 18 more deaths on Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2020.

Active cases: 5,348
Total caseload: 19,655
Recovered: 13,869
Deaths: 438

Manitoba #COVID19 patients in hospital: 300*
In ICU: 38*

*Understated. The count does not include long-term COVID patients who are no longer contagious but still require hospital care.

Five-day Manitoba #COVID19 test-positivity rate: 13.5 per cent

Tests completed Tuesday: 1,862

The latest death toll - 18 - is the second-highest in one day for Manitoba. #COVID19

The latest Manitobans to succumb to #COVID19:

• A Winnipeg man in his 40s
• A Winnipeg woman in her 50s
• A Winnipeg woman in her 50s (Health Science Centre unit GA3 outbreak)
• A Winnipeg woman in her 60s
• A Southern man in his 60s
• A Winnipeg man in his 70s

1/x

• A Southern woman in her 70s
• A Winnipeg woman in her 70s
• A Winnipeg woman in her 70s (Victoria General Hospital unit 4S)
• A Winnipeg man in his 80s (Maples Long Term Care Home)
• A Winnipeg man in his 80’s (Park Manor Care Home)

2/x

• A Prairie Mountainwoman in her 80s (Grandview Personal Care Home)
• A Southern man in his 80s
• A Winnipeg woman in her 80s (Misericordia Health Centre's Transitional Unit)
• A Winnipeg woman in her 80s (St. Norbert Personal Care Home)

3/x

• A Winnipeg woman in her 90s (Charleswood Care Centre)
• A Winnipeg womanin her 90s (Park Manor Care Home)
• A Winnipeg man in his 90s (Holy Family Personal Care Home)

4/4

Regional breakdown of new Manitoba #COVID19 cases:

193 Winnipeg
27 Interlake-Eastern
26 Southern
19 Northern
15 Prairie Mountain

New outbreak:

- Boyne Lodge Personal Care Home, Carman.

Outbreak declared over in error:

- Headingley Correctional Centre still has an outbreak

Outbreaks over in Winnipeg:

- Grace Hospital unit 4 South
- Health Science Centre unit GH3

Winnipeg test-positivity: 14.5 per cent

Pallister says MB is ready to receive first dozes of Pfizer vaccine "as early as next week."

Only in limited supplies until spring.

Urges Manitobans not to let down guard.

Pallister: 900 doses at first.

Will go to frontline workers at four critical-care hospitals.

900 people, to be clear. 1,950 doses. Each person gets two.

Manitoba has been told it will receive 228,000 doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines between now and March 31.

That can vaccinate more than 100,000 Manitobans or about one in 14 people in the province.

This is based on a per capita allocation from the feds, plus an additional 9,600 Moderna vaccine doses due to Manitoba’s higher proportion of Indigenous population.

Manitoba's priority populations:

• Health-care workers involved in #COVID19
• Seniors in long-term care, assisted living facilities, retirement homes & chronic care hospitals
• Older adults - 80 years of age and older
• Adults at risk in remote Indigenous communities

Roussin:

"The first temporary immunization clinic is ready now in Winnipeg. Yesterday, the site successfully completed a logistic dry run with a federal-provincial test of the Manitoba’s joint logistics capabilities"

From the provincial release:

"More fixed vaccination sites are planned to be opened over the next three months in Winnipeg, Brandon, Thompson, Steinbach, Gimli, Portage la Prairie and The Pas."

More than "60 freezers of varying specifications have already been procured or allocated to the province to meet the very stringent physical storage and distribution demands of these two vaccines."

"By January, the province will have the capacity to safely store more than 1.8 million doses of vaccine.

"Dry ice and related supplies have also been purchased to ensure the quality of vaccine and safety for people who will work with it."

Manitoba will begin recruiting vaccinators:

"Clinic managers, immunization clinical leaders, immunization team members, clinic navigators & post-immunization observation team members. Retired doctors, nurses & other health professionals, as well as medical and nursing students"

Roussin reminds Manitobans the start of vaccinations will not impact the health-care situation.

Manitoba still needs to bring case numbers, contacts and hospitalizations down.

Pallister: Too many have lost lives in pandemics.

"The next month is not going to be easy, either."

Roussin asked how much immunity is provided from initial dose of two-shot doses of Moderna and Pfizer.

Doses needed 21 days apart.

Doesn't quite answer. Also says not much is known yet about whether vaccine will be required annually, like the flu shot.

Roussin asked how quickly the first 100,000 Manitobans will get the vaccine.

Says he doesn't expect many doses at once.

Limiting factor will be supply.

Roussin: Vaccines are inactive. Can not give you #COVID19

Roussin: Will be appointments for eligible people.

Wants to ensure only eligible people get the first doses.

Roussin says choices will be made within priority groups.

Will have to choose where the transmission is highest.

Roussin: No different advice for people who got their first dose but not the second.

Suggests you must still act like you're not vaccinated until you get both doses, three weeks apart.

Roussin: We need 60 per cent of Manitobans vaccinated before herd immunity is achieved.

Roussin: Doesn't know yet whether people who have recovered from COVID should get the vaccine and if they should, when.

Tweet did not send earlier: Manitoba has not discussed a vaccine passport, the way Ontario has.

Roussin asked to clarify if workers at all seven COVID ICUs (at HSC, St. Boniface, Grace and Brandon hospitals) will get the COVID vaccine first.

Roussin does not know.

[Province said four locations. Unclear if that means workers at those four hospitals or all seven COVID ICUs or all COVID units.]

Pallister condemns reeve of La Broquerie, a COVID denier.

"Sir, we live in the Red River Valley. It is flat between you and I, but the world is not flat."