Less is more, Manitoba premier says in defence of shift to weekly COVID-19 data reporting

When it comes to releasing COVID-19 data, Manitoba's premier appears tobelieve that less is more.

Heather Stefanson saidManitobans are gleaning more from a once-a-week snapshot of COVID data, complete with trends, than from the long-standing practice of releasingcase counts, hospitalizations and outbreak reports on a daily basis.

The weekly epidemiology report that is now being released every Thursday, provides enough context to assess the severity of the virus, the premier said Tuesday. Shehas previously saidManitobansare now in a place toassess the COVID-19 risk for themselves and potentially adjust their lives accordingly.

"What Manitobanswant is relevant information so they can make those decisions," the premiersaid duringquestion period at the legislature on Tuesday.

"What they want to know is what the trends are. Weekly numbers offer what those trends are."

The province no longer has any public health restrictions, treating COVID-19 as a disease that isin the process of becomingendemic.

But there's no question that since the province issued its final daily update on March 25,Manitobans have had less data to rely on and the information that is now provided every Thursdayis already a week oldby the time it's released.

As well, hospitalization numbers now present a snapshot of how many people were admitted with COVID-19 during a given week, rather than offering a complete picture of how many COVID-19 patients are currently in hospital.

In addition, the list of COVID-19 outbreaks the province releases no longer counts the number of people affected.

Opposition parties say the premier's support of the weekly report versus daily datadefies comprehension.

"We know it's notbetter than daily information," NDP health critic Uzoma Asagwara said.

The MLA accused the Progressive Conservative government of withholding data from Manitobans as part of a "strategy to avoid accountability."

"They don't want to be accountable to that data. They don't want to have to answer questions from Manitobans as to why they're not acting based on what that data is telling us," Asagwara said.

A lot can change in a week: Liberals

Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont said more information is simply better.

"If [the data] is more granular, it gives you a better sense of where you're going," he said.

"The idea that we're better off knowing after a week where the trends are just isn't the case, especially when you can see massive changes within a week."

Though the release of public data has changed, Stefanson insisted theprovince remains on top of the COVID-19 situation and is regularly monitoring the pandemic's severity.

Last week, Health Minister Audrey Gordonsaid the release of aweeklyepidemiology report for COVID-19 is similar to what's donefor other infectious diseases, such as the West Nile virus.

However, nobody in Manitoba has died of West Nilein the last five years, while1,744 people have died due to COVID-19 since March 2020.