On April 28, the Canadian Government announced that the federal, provincial, and territorial governments have come together and agreed to a set of common principles for restarting the Canadian economy.
The statement acknowledges that provinces and territories will take different steps at different times in order to ease restrictions, reflecting the specific circumstances in each jurisdiction. The statement identifies four main principles, including taking a science and evidence-based approach to decision-making, coordination and collaboration between all jurisdictions, continued accountability and transparency of all governments, and flexibility and proportionality as information changes over time.
The following criteria and measures have been identified as required to be in place in order to begin to take steps to restart the economy:
- COVID-19 transmission is controlled, so new cases are contained at a level that our health care system can manage.
- Sufficient public health capacity is in place to test, trace, isolate, and control the spread of the virus.
- Expanded health care capacity exists to support all needs, including COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 patients.
- Supports are in place for vulnerable groups, communities, and key populations. This includes the protection of seniors, residents of group living facilities, workers in close quarters, homeless people, and Indigenous people and those living in remote locations, health care workers and other essential workers, and inmates.
- Support and monitoring of workplace protocols are in place to keep Canadians safe at their jobs, and prevent the introduction and spread of COVID-19.
- Restrictions on non-essential travel are eased and managed in a coordinated manner.
- Communities are supported in managing local disease activity, including in child care, schools, and public transportation, and industry and economic sectors are engaged to support the health of Canadians, reduced viral activity, and protection of the economy as it restarts.
On the same day, the Manitoba government announced that the province is expanding testing criteria to any Manitoban with symptoms of COVID-19, even mild symptoms, to be tested to better determine the spread of the virus in Manitoba.