March 28, 2020

Treaty 1 Territory, Winnipeg, MB—Leader of the Official Opposition Wab Kinew is calling on the provincial government to collect and publish more data regarding screening for COVID-19 and to regularly share that information with the public.

“Testing plays an important part in our ability to flatten the curve. Manitoba families have legitimate questions about the testing process—how many swabs have been done per site, how many are in the queue and how many have been completed per site,” said Kinew. “When armed with all the information they need, Manitobans will feel better about their health, and the health of our own communities.”

In addition to expanding testing even further the Manitoba NDP is calling on the provincial government to publicly and proactively share more information on the testing process by:
• Publicly reporting on the number of completed tests per screening site, so that Manitobans stay informed about the health of their own community;
• Publicly reporting on the number of swabs done for COVID-19 by site; and
• Publicly report the number of tests still awaiting results as other jurisdictions, like Ontario currently do.

Kinew stressed the continued need for testing capacity to be ramped up. The Official Opposition remains committed to supporting the efforts of the government to fight COVID-19.