Sard

I'm wondering if the delay in signing Harris is that he's taking the team first attitude and letting Walters take care of signing the rest of the team and then Harris is willing to come in and "take what's left" as it were for his salary.

And they got to skip over all of the usual waiting between trials because they already had the funding that they usually have to wait on. The actual trial steps were complete.

It starts at the 1:00:40 mark.

https://winnipeg.ctvnews.ca/manitoba-mandating-temporary-remote-learning-for-some-students-following-winter-break-1.5213825 Mandatory remote learning for Grades 7-12 for 2 weeks after Christmas break (January 4-15). Available, but not required for K-6.

Don't think so... see my message above. Apparently everything is as usual without the red tape and time consuming process of getting money approved. Everything else is following proper protocols. Unfortunately I don't have a source for that, I think I heard it on CBC radio a week or so back.

I've heard that another contributing factor was that nobody had to stop between stages to try and raise money for the next stage because it had already been allocated, unlike when they are doing other vaccines. All of the trials and stages are taking the usual amount of time without the red tape to slow things down.

This is why I don't get all that excited when I see a decrease over 1 or 2 days...

I do wonder how many of the people at the rally were actually from Steinbach though. From what I heard, a good number of the people there were from Winnipeg. It does raise the question of why the test positivity rate is so high, but on the news they have been saying that even the Winnipeg percentage skews high "because of the smaller population" vs. all of Manitoba.

My concern as well. I think it sucks that kinds sports has been shut down. From what I've heard, some of the newest cases have been due to adult rec leagues where people aren't really following the guidelines and/or going out for a beer after their games. Crappy that the kids have to suffer because a bunch of adults are irresponsible.

Personally, I don't see the value/need to shutdown schools. If that's where it's spreading, then maybe, but that doesn't seem to be the case. If they need to bring in stricter measures for certain schools where it is spreading, then that makes sense to me. The measures need to be targeted to where the virus is being spread (and no, I don't know where that is, but I presume that the contact tracing shows that.

I find it a little ironic that people who are wearing shirts that say HUGS OVER MASKS are so angry.

Sorry, I should have been more clear, I was referring to the people who have sick days and come to work anyway bragging about "never having to take a sick day". I totally get the ones working paycheck to paycheck who literally can't afford to take a sick day because they don't get paid... I don't feel like they are acting like heroes, as they don't have much choice.

You are right, some workplaces have created that culture with bosses who shame their employees for taking time off. I will admit that in my younger days, I did some of it myself, but as I've aged, I've realized that I don't want to be around people who are sick at work, and they probably feel the same way (for the most part).

I think the worst are those who act like heroes by coming in to work when they are sick and then brag about how they've never taken a sick day.

I absolutely agree that there is a need to remain flexible and not need to necessarily have a plan in place for every possibility, but I think that was the problem with the province's school plan. I think they were trying so hard to have a full plan in place for every contingency and that paralized them into not having anything until a week or two before school started. Even if you discount the first 3 months as they were dealing with last year's school plan as best they could, but they had 3 months though the summer to come up with some better guidance than cohorts of 75 and face masks for everyone grade 4 and up unless you're able to keep 2m space. And I'm sure the school administrations would have appreciated having the guidance earlier than they had it so that they could have time to implement the guidance and other things that they came up with on their own (like plexiglass between seats on shared desks).

My youngest goes to a catholic school, so we've given them enough money to afford them I guess. I do feel though that the government and the school divisions dropped the ball pretty bad when it comes to handling this. The gov dragged their feet for 6 months without putting out any guidance and then basically said we'll put things back pretty much the same as usual with the addition of masks and cohorts. Now I get that the divisions were waiting for guidance from the province, but I feel like they could have come up with something and then tweaked it based on the guidance that came out later. Also, the last minute funding that the province announced felt like it came out in a desperate attempt to make their plan look better, but announcing that a week before school opened was too late for the divisions to use towards hiring more staff to all for smaller class sizes and such things. Nice to hear that the kids in younger grades are wearing the masks, even though they aren't required. I was pleasantly surprised when my kid told me her whole class had them.

Yeah, I was surprised to hear that as well. My youngest is in G3, and her whole class keeps them on all day (except for eating), and they have plexiglass walls between them on the desks. My older ones (G10) have been told that they can take them off in their classes when they are at least 2m apart, but they tell me that they keep them on all the time anyway.

Problem is that they aren't all masked, all the time. I know that at a lot of high schools, the kids are being told that as long as they are 2m apart, they can take their masks off. Then they start to move around and forget to put them back on right away. Allowing the masks to come off for an extended period of time is the problem.

Didn't they say that about a month ago?

Stuff like that makes me crazy... I don't understand why some people have such a huge issue with having to wear a mask. In my mind I see it like the old policy of "No shirt, no shoes, no service", now it's got the added bit about the mask... "No shirt, no shoes, no mask, no service".

Public health officials advise the current five-day COVID-19 test positivity rate is 1.25 per cent. Forty new cases of the virus have been identified as of 9:30 a.m. today. This brings the total number of lab-confirmed positive and probable positive cases in Manitoba to 643. The data shows there were: 25 new cases in the Prairie Mountain Health region; five new cases in Southern Health-Sante Sud; and 10 new cases in the Winnipeg region. Preliminary investigations are ongoing but indicate that the majority of Prairie Mountain Health cases continue to be linked to previously-announced cases in Brandon with early indications of community transmission. Case investigations are ongoing and when they are completed, additional information will be provided as needed to inform of any public health risks. The data also shows: nine current hospitalizations, with three individuals in intensive care; 246 active cases and 389 individuals have recovered from COVID-19; and the number of deaths due to COVID-19 remains at eight.

See, the biggest issue I see around that is even if you do consider her a health-care provider, it goes against the spirit of why people are being asked to self-isolate. Just because you aren't required to self-isolate, not doing so is somewhat ignorant and selfish as far as I'm concerned.

I just make sure to only use one had to touch anything and then soak it with sanitizer when I'm done.

Public health officials advise the current five-day COVID-19 test positivity rate is 1.59 per cent. Sixteen new cases of the virus have been identified as of 9:30 a.m. today. This brings the total number of lab-confirmed positive and probable positive cases in Manitoba to 558. The data shows there were: 11 new cases in the Prairie Mountain Health region; and five new cases in the Southern Health - Santé Sud health region. While many of today's cases appear to be linked to known clusters in Brandon and the Southern Health - Santé Sud health region or are close contacts of a previously-announced case, preliminary information suggests that there may be a small number of cases of unknown acquisition in these areas. Case investigations are ongoing to determine possible COVID-19 exposures. When the investigations are completed, additional information will be provided as needed to inform people of any public health risks. The data also shows: six current hospitalizations, with three individuals in intensive care; 182 active cases and 352 individuals have recovered from COVID-19; and the number of deaths due to COVID-19 remains at eight. The data also shows: six current hospitalizations, with three individuals in intensive care; 196 active cases and 354 individuals have recovered from COVID-19; and the number of deaths due to COVID-19 remains at eight.

The current five-day COVID-19 test positivity rate is 1.10 per cent. Seventeen new cases of the virus have been identified as of 9:30 a.m. today. This brings the total number of lab-confirmed positive and probable positive cases in Manitoba to 491. The data shows there were: 10 new cases in the Prairie Mountain Health region; five new cases in the Winnipeg health region; and two new cases in the Southern Health - Santé Sud health region. Case investigations are ongoing. When completed, additional information will be provided as needed to inform people of any public health risks. The data also shows: nine current hospitalizations, with three individuals in intensive care; 132 active cases and 351 individuals have recovered from COVID-19; and the number of deaths due to COVID-19 remains at eight.