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The province is committing $50 million in the next budget specifically towards dealing with surgery backlogs created by COVID-19 lockdowns.
Premier Brian Pallister made the announcement on Wednesday afternoon, but was light on details on how the money would be spent to address the issue, instead saying those details will coming in the budget to be tabled on April 7.
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“This is going to make sure we lessen the pain of each individual Manitoban that is waiting for those treatments and surgeries is experiencing right now,” said Pallister. “These are folks that are sacrificing as a consequence of the pandemic, far in excess of what most of us have had to do.”
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The provincial government released data on Monday on race, ethnicity and Indigeneity (REI) information from people who test positive for COVID-19 showing that like in other parts of the world infections in Manitoba are not evenly distributed by population groups.
Collected since May 1 of last year, the data shows that despite only making up 13% of the province’s population, Indigenous and First Nations people made up 17% of Manitoba’s positive cases. Meanwhile, Filipino people showed the greatest disparity in population size burden of COVID-19 with a 12% positivity rate while having only 7% of the population. Filipino women are slightly more affected than men.