COVID-19 Manitoba

[esquire]

The way things have gone over the last few months, it feels like we had a 40 point halftime lead but somehow still managed to blow the game.

[vid]

Maybe running thousands of ads telling people to go to Manitoba until, about two weeks ago, wasn't the best idea after all?

I um... I think maybe it's time to close Highway 17...

[Luisito]

Originally Posted by esquire

The way things have gone over the last few months, it feels like we had a 40 point halftime lead but somehow still managed to blow the game.

That is exactly how it feels. We really dropped the ball on this one. Not good, not good at all.

[BlackDog204]

MANITOBA COVID-19 UPDATE NOV. 2:

- 241 new cases
- 6.275 total
- 3,455 active cases
- 80 deaths (M90s, 15-M80s, 12-M70s, 4-M60s, 4-M50s, 3-M40s, W100s, 10-W90s, 15-W80s, 6-W70s, 3-W60s, W50s)
- 124 hospital, 18 ICU
- 2,740 recovered
- 262,571 tests
- 2,458 tests yesterday
- TP 9%

https://twitter.com/ScottBilleck/sta...31239235919872

[Temperance]

Complete incompetence. Pallister's response to the pandemic was woefully inadequate. He ignored the advice of experts and today called the idea of preparing during the summer for the second wave "sheer idiocy" because case counts were low then.

I was shocked back in April how long it took me to get through to Health Links (days of busy signal) and how it took me to get my COVID results back (3 weeks). What is far more shocking is that the government never really ramped up its capacity in a significant way. There were people in September who were still waiting 2 weeks or more for test results.

I was prepared to give the provincial government some benefit of the doubt, given the policy complexities of COVID, but that margin of goodwill is now totally eroded. This is mismanagement of the highest order. No excuses.

[dmacc]

Originally Posted by Temperance

Complete incompetence. Pallister's response to the pandemic was woefully inadequate. He ignored the advice of experts and today called the idea of preparing during the summer for the second wave "sheer idiocy" because case counts were low then.

I was shocked back in April how long it took me to get through to Health Links (days of busy signal) and how it took me to get my COVID results back (3 weeks). What is far more shocking is that the government never really ramped up its capacity in a significant way. There were people in September who were still waiting 2 weeks or more for test results.

I was prepared to give the provincial government some benefit of the doubt, given the policy complexities of COVID, but that margin of goodwill is now totally eroded. This is mismanagement of the highest order. No excuses.

There is an online portal that you can go to to access results and it appears to be fairly quick (couple day). If you choose to wait for a phone call and you are a negative result then you will be waiting a while because you are very low priority.

When it comes to needing additional resources to identify and log these new cases it is more a difficulty in ramping up staffing. This was hard because of the sudden increase in numbers over the past few weeks. I wouldn't want the health care system paying people to just sit on their hands for months in case they are needed. it can take time to realize there is a short fall and reallocate staffing.

I also don't blame the government for their response to this. I can tell you with first hand knowledge a lot of work went into planning and preparing for a second wave, maybe the trigger was pulled a little slow but that isn't a failure. They have been saying since the beginning,

Don't meet with people outside your household
Wear a mask when you can't
Wash your hands
Remain home when sick
Keep your distance in public
Keep contacts to a minimum
Get tested if symptomatic or exposed
Download the covid alert app

Remember, we are in this position because Manitobans and not the government didn't do what was being advised by Dr. Roussin. You didn't lower your contacts enough, Bomberjet didn't social distance enough, Esquire took over a week to get tested while showing symptoms I didn't keep my contacts to a minimum. Obviously I'm not accusing each of you of those thing, I'm just trying to illustrate that it is us that have not done our part not someone else.

[GreyGarden]

I don't know, I think at this point the government has to shoulder a lot of the blame in terms of how they handled the pandemic. No one was expecting perfection from any government. But when epidemiologists and doctors are criticizing the government's response I'm going to listen hard to what they had to say.

https://globalnews.ca/news/7435883/c...-lockdown/amp/

This line really stuck me:

“The reality is, in Manitoba, we got lucky. In the spring, we were about as inept as we are now. It’s just that we didn’t have a big challenge and I think we got cocky, to be quite blunt about it.”

I think BP and the people around him wanted to be the 'first' to open in the country, I don't know why that would make him better, but I'm sure it kind of played to his base, and I think he rushed it and didn't take it seriously. The low numbers likely lead the government to believe that they were doing everything right. Those two things were a dangerous combination.

I have a hard time accepting that Manitobans were just worse at following instructions than the rest of the country, and that's the reason we're in the situation that we are now. I think the difference is how the governments mandated orders and gave instructions. Plus, the speed and clarity which instructions were given.

[Festivus]

Originally Posted by GreyGarden

I don't know, I think at this point the government has to shoulder a lot of the blame in terms of how they handled the pandemic. No one was expecting perfection from any government. But when epidemiologists and doctors are criticizing the government's response I'm going to listen hard to what they had to say.

https://globalnews.ca/news/7435883/c...-lockdown/amp/

This line really stuck me:

“The reality is, in Manitoba, we got lucky. In the spring, we were about as inept as we are now. It’s just that we didn’t have a big challenge and I think we got cocky, to be quite blunt about it.”

I think BP and the people around him wanted to be the 'first' to open in the country, I don't know why that would make him better, but I'm sure it kind of played to his base, and I think he rushed it and didn't take it seriously. The low numbers likely lead the government to believe that they were doing everything right. Those two things were a dangerous combination.

I have a hard time accepting that Manitobans were just worse at following instructions than the rest of the country, and that's the reason we're in the situation that we are now. I think the difference is how the governments mandated orders and gave instructions. Plus, the speed and clarity which instructions were given.

I'm in SK, and I think it's the same thing here. MB and SK got lucky because, frankly, we're both fly-over provinces. The low initial case count combined with the total lockdown helped us out...but left us mentally unprepared (and cocky) about the future.

[dmacc]

Originally Posted by GreyGarden

I don't know, I think at this point the government has to shoulder a lot of the blame in terms of how they handled the pandemic. No one was expecting perfection from any government. But when epidemiologists and doctors are criticizing the government's response I'm going to listen hard to what they had to say.

https://globalnews.ca/news/7435883/c...-lockdown/amp/

This line really stuck me:

“The reality is, in Manitoba, we got lucky. In the spring, we were about as inept as we are now. It’s just that we didn’t have a big challenge and I think we got cocky, to be quite blunt about it.”

I think BP and the people around him wanted to be the 'first' to open in the country, I don't know why that would make him better, but I'm sure it kind of played to his base, and I think he rushed it and didn't take it seriously. The low numbers likely lead the government to believe that they were doing everything right. Those two things were a dangerous combination.

I have a hard time accepting that Manitobans were just worse at following instructions than the rest of the country, and that's the reason we're in the situation that we are now. I think the difference is how the governments mandated orders and gave instructions. Plus, the speed and clarity which instructions were given.

Dr. Roussin's instructions have not changed since the April, even when restrictions were being lifted. They have always been;

Don't meet with people outside your household
Wear a mask when you can't
Wash your hands
Remain home when sick
Keep your distance in public
Keep contacts to a minimum
Get tested if symptomatic or exposed

People have not been following that.

[optimusREIM]

Originally Posted by dmacc

Dr. Roussin's instructions have not changed since the April, even when restrictions were being lifted. They have always been;

Don't meet with people outside your household
Wear a mask when you can't
Wash your hands
Remain home when sick
Keep your distance in public
Keep contacts to a minimum
Get tested if symptomatic or exposed

People have not been following that.

Yeah but they were recommendations. People went "thanks for the recommendation" and did their thing, because frankly, if you were to follow that to the letter you would end up going rather crazy rather quickly.

Specifically with regards to the don't meet with people outside your household and keeping contacts to a minimum. I don't know of anyone who's been running around knowingly sick.

[Festivus]

There are three levels of government action, imo:

1. Recommendation
2. Rule
3. Enforcement

At each step you will gain additional people following the guidelines. Unless a government makes something mandatory and enforces that rule, it hasn't done all it can, and some of the onus for failure lies on it.

[dmacc]

As Dr. Roussin said, the reason they are only recommendations and not orders is because they cannot be enforced.

[dmacc]

How do you enforce something like not meeting people outside of your household? Do you employ people to go door to door to check? that just is not feasible. That is why they are recommendations.

[Andy6]

Originally Posted by dmacc

How do you enforce something like not meeting people outside of your household? Do you employ people to go door to door to check? that just is not feasible. That is why they are recommendations.

But a lot of people are looking for any excuse to make exceptions of themselves. The use of a word like that helps them do so in a guilt-free way, even if in some technical legalistic sense it is accurate.

[bomberjet]

Pallister today: now is not the time to place blame or point fingers.

Also Pallister: it's your fault.

See where the problem starts?

[Biff]

Better news today....only 103 cases but:

- Record high in hospital - 130 H, 20 ICU
- 5 more deaths
- TPR 8.6

[cheswick]

Originally Posted by Biff

Better news today....only 103 cases but:

- Record high in hospital - 130 H, 20 ICU
- 5 more deaths
- TPR 8.6

Tough to gauge anything from a single day, but hopefully we've reached our daily peak. The 480 number was ridiculous. Far in excess of places like QC per capita, which has been pretty steady at its peak of about 1000 a day (~160 equivalent in MB).

Still scary of thinking what the hospitals / ICU will look like in a couple of weeks considering there's always a bit of a lag between new cases and hospital admission.

[1ajs]

there will be a post halloween spike no doubt

[TimeFadesAway]

Originally Posted by dmacc

How do you enforce something like not meeting people outside of your household? Do you employ people to go door to door to check? that just is not feasible. That is why they are recommendations.

Maybe we should take the same attitude towards murders and robberies. We should just recommend that people don't kill each other or steal and not enforce it.

[Jammon]

Originally Posted by 1ajs

there will be a post halloween spike no doubt

I'd be surprised if there was. No one went out and I think most families decided to stay home. We're seeing the last of the cohort transmissions from Thanksgiving and late September when people were complacent. I saw that complacency all summer- especially at places like the Forks where no one was masking and people were easily breaking social distancing measures. I'm not surprised we ended up where we are now. And our government has been woefully pathetic at a response.