COVID-19 restrictions are being eased in Manitoba just in time for the long weekend.
Starting Friday morning, restaurants and licensed premises will be allowed to reopen at 25% capacity but groups must be from the same household only.
Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Brent Roussin says business owners will be required to enforce the new rules.
“That could involve just simply looking at that address. For the contact collection, people have to write down their address to be able to contact them should a case arise. So there’s a lot of reasonable areas here that can be done.”
Dr. Roussin adds, “We’re not going to be at some unreasonable level where a family with younger children come out and you have to produce a birth certificate or something like that. That’s not what were talking about here. We’re talking about a reasonable way to ensure that people at a table are from the same household.”
Premier Brian Pallister believes business owners will comply stressing the biggest consequence a restaurant would face wouldn’t be the fine, it would be the reality of increased case counts as a result of not enforcing the rules.
“If in three weeks we see case numbers spiking, the price of that may well be we may have to reverse these orders and that would be very, very negative consequence for restaurants. So the industry understands that.”
Pallister adds, “Because it’s in the best interest not only of all of use who might like to share a night out with our spouse or whatever, but also in the best interest of the restaurant industry and other industries as well in our province.”
The updated public health orders in Manitoba will be in place for three weeks and include:
-allowing restaurants and licensed premises to reopen at 25 per cent capacity with patron groups limited to members of the same household only;
-allowing outdoor rinks to reopen for casual sports as well as organized practices and games, with multi-team tournaments not permitted;
-allowing gyms, fitness centres and yoga studios to reopen at 25 per cent capacity;
-allowing indoor sporting facilities such as rinks, gymnastic clubs and martial arts studios to reopen at 25 per cent capacity for individual instruction only;
-allowing places of worship to hold regular religious services if a service does not exceed 10 per cent of usual capacity or 50 people, whichever is lower;
-allowing self-help groups for persons dealing with addictions or other behaviours to hold meetings at 25 per cent capacity of the premise where meetings take place;
-allowing museums, art galleries and libraries to operate at 25 per cent capacity;
-allowing personal service businesses, such as those providing pedicures, electrolysis, cosmetic application, tanning, tattooing or massage services to reopen at 25 per cent capacity;
-allowing photographers and videographers to offer services to individual clients or those residing in the same household in addition to providing services at weddings, with the exception of visiting client homes; and
-allowing the film industry to operate fully with physical distancing and other safety measures in place.
