A cluster in Brandon is part of an uptick in COVID-19 cases in the province.

Manitoba's Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Brent Roussin says the Brandon cluster has grown to 28, 18 of which were reported yesterday. Roussin explains they're not the result of community based transmission but started with a travel-related case from Eastern Canada.

He adds the driving force behind that cluster is not a workplace.

However, the union which represents Maple Leaf Foods employees in Brandon is calling on the company to cease production until Monday, August 10 due to multiple positive cases of COVID-19 identified among non-production unionized employees. As of Thursday morning, there were four positive cases identified.

Roussin says they won't speak specifically about any workplace, but explains they always look for evidence of transmission within a facility.

"The industry as a whole has been taking a lot of precautions... from what we hear the industry has gone above and beyond what public health has recommended," Roussin says. "In the industry as a whole we're not seeing evidence of transmission occurring within the workplace... that would be something that would concern us, but we're going to continue to watch that very closely."

"There isn't anything that we know about that would be putting the public at risk," he adds.