CPM Covid-19 Bulletin #24

On Thursday February 25^th 2021 your Council reviewed their position on what is required to provide in person treatment previously announced in November 2020. After a thorough discussion there will be no changes to the guidelines as announced in November. As a reminder the guidelines for physiotherapists are:

Screening – Ensure you are screening your clients at time of appointment booking and screening upon arrival to your clinic. Resources can be found on the Shared Health website by clickinghere.
PPE for Physiotherapists – PPE is mandatoryand consists of a medical grade mask and includes eye protection. Eye protection is defined by Shared Health as “face shields, eye goggles or safety glasses”. Regular eye glasses are not considered to be protective eyewear.
PPE for Patients – all Patients are required to wear a mask in Manitoba under the Critical (Red) level on the Pandemic Response System.
Physical distancing plus PPE is mandatory– Ensure you can maintain 6 feet/2 meters between all individuals within your clinic. Including entry and exit from your clinic. Physical distancing does not negate the need for PPE for the physiotherapist.

Vaccinations

The Province of Manitoba has passed an amendment to the Emergency Measures Act about Vaccine Eligibility Verification. There is concern about health care workers jumping the queue for vaccinations by altering the truth about where they work and in what setting, in order to comply with the current Shared Health criteria. For that reason, this amendment was passed. If a health care worker has been found to jump the queue, Shared Health will investigate and the issue will be directed as a complaint to the regulatory college for follow up.

Please be patient about receiving your vaccination. Your turn will come. There are now 4 different vaccinations that have been approved and the time line is shortening.

To view the current eligibility for vaccinations, go to:

https://www.gov.mb.ca/covid19/vaccine/eligibility-criteria.html

Self-Isolation

As a reminder on Jan 29, public health orders were amended to specify that anyone entering Manitoba from anywhere in Canada will be required to self-isolate for 14 days. This includes those entering from northern and Western Canada, and from west of Terrace Bay in Ontario, which under previous health orders did not require self-isolation. For more information on current public health orders visit: https://www.gov.mb.ca/covid19/restartmb/prs/orders/index.html

Public health officials also announced changes to the self-isolation rules this week. They are advising that:

“…if anyone is symptomatic, or has a household member who is symptomatic, the entire household needs to self-isolate pending COVID-19 test results. For health-care workers, exceptions may apply and staff may be able/required to report to work after contacting their workplace occupational health services or designate. For information on self-isolation, including exceptions, visit www.gov.mb.ca/covid19/fundamentals/self-isolation.html.”

If you do not have an occupational health services department at your place of employment to make these decisions then you must self-isolate and follow the instructions provided to you and your family when contacted about the test results.

Travel for Courses

In addition to the above the Council also reminds physiotherapists that travel for courses is not considered essential. This decision is based on the travel limitations in the public health orders. Please see the information on Travel and Self-isolation by following the link below:

https://www.gov.mb.ca/covid19/restartmb/prs/orders/index.html#travel-self-isolation

To view the Non-Essential Travel for Health-Care Workers FAQ document for further information please follow the link below:

https://sharedhealthmb.ca/files/covid-19-non-essential-travel-for-hcw-faqs.pdf

Education on PPE

For further information on PPE, including a review of donning and doffing, please see the links below:

https://sharedhealthmb.ca/covid19/providers/ppe-resources/

https://sharedhealthmb.ca/files/covid-19-provincial-ppe-requirements.pdf