Feds to Deploy Manpower, Testing Capacity to Aid Manitoba’s COVID-19 Surge

A red (COVID-19 positive) intensive care unit is shown at the Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg, Canada, on Dec. 8, 2020. Mikaela MacKenzie/The Canadian Press

Ottawa announced it would send a range of support including epidemiologists and increased testing capacity to Manitoba in response to the premier’s call for federal help to cope with the province’s surging COVID-19 cases and overflowing intensive care units.

“A critical part of our fight against COVID-19 is the support we have provided to provinces and territories,” Public Safety Minister Bill Blair said in a statement Monday. “Today, departments and agencies across the federal government have again come together to support our fellow citizens in Manitoba.”