Manitoba will be moving to Level Orange Restrictive tomorrow, on our province's Pandemic Response System.

On Wednesday of this week, Premier Brian Pallister, along with Chief Provincial Public Health Officer Dr. Brent Roussin announced that restrictions will be reduced thanks to Manitobans reaching the first milestone on our reopening strategy. With more than 70 per cent of Manitobans aged 12 and up receiving their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine, and more than 25 per cent receiving their second dose, many businesses and facilities will be able to reopen at 25 per cent capacity.

The new public health order will take effect at 12:01 Saturday morning and will be in place until August 2nd at 12:01 am. Dr. Jazz Atwal is Deputy Chief Provincial Public Health Officer. He says a few of the changes are:

  • outdoor gathering sizes on private property will double to 10 persons, and will allow outdoor visitors to briefly access homes for essential activities such as using a bathroom.
  • public outdoor gathering sizes will increase to 25 persons.
  • retail businesses to open with increased capacity at 25 per cent to a limit of 250 persons, with no restrictions on the number of household members permitted to shop together.
  • day camps will be able to operate for children of all ages as long as the maximum group size of any group of campers is 20 and no joint activities between groups take place.


Dr. Atwal stresses that the change from Red to Orange does not currently impact visitation to acute care or long term care facilities. Visitor access to acute care facilities is being gradually expanded as vaccination rates rise and COVID-19 case counts drop. He adds work is underway to develop essential care partner and visitor guidelines for provincial response Level Orange.

Dr. Atwal says they examined a number of indicators when making the decision to move to Level Orange. For example, he says COVID-19 case counts are dropping. Today there were 85 new cases, which is a 45 per cent drop from the seven day average of 97. They also look at hospitalizations and ICU numbers. There are currently 197 Manitobans hospitalized with COVID-19 in Manitoba and neighbouring provinces, and a total of 66 Manitoba patients receiving intensive care for COVID-19.