COVID-19 pandemic in Manitoba

The COVID-19 pandemic in Manitoba is a viral pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), a novel infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).

Manitoba officially reported its first cases on March 12, 2020. A state of emergency was declared on March 20, and implemented its first lockdown on April 1—ordering the closure of all non-essential businesses. In comparison to other provinces, case counts remained relatively low in Manitoba throughout the spring and summer months, and the province began lifting some of its health orders on May 4. Some isolated outbreaks occurred in communal Hutterite colonies and in the Brandon, Manitoba area in late-July and August respectively.

By September 2020, the province had begun to develop a harsher second wave, which led to restrictions being reimplemented in parts of the province (including the city of Winnipeg), and by November 12, all of Manitoba being placed under the highest, "Critical" (red) level of the province's tier-based response system, which reintroduced strong restrictions on gatherings and non-essential activities similar to the first wave.

While some restrictions were eased in early-2021 while remaining under the Critical tier, strong restrictions on gatherings, retail capacity, and specific non-essential sectors of businesses were reintroduced in May 2021 due to a harsher third wave of COVID-19 fuelled by variants of SARS-CoV-2. The province's healthcare system was overwhelmed, which required it to send some of its COVID-19 intensive care patients to neighbouring provinces, and seek federal aid.^[1] By June 2021, the province had begun to lift some of its restrictions due to vaccination progress. However, due to Omicron variant, the province began to reintroduce restrictions on gatherings in late-2021. These restrictions were phased out in February and March 2022.