Peguis First Nation requiring travellers from Brandon, Steinbach to self-isolate

Anyone arriving in Peguis First Nation who has recently travelled to one of two COVID-19 hot spots in Manitoba will have to go into a period of self-isolation.

The First Nation's pandemic planning team announced that it was re-introducing restrictions, which had been lifted months ago. The restrictions now include a requirement that anyone who has travelled to either Brandon or Steinbach will have to self-isolate for 14 days.

"We have zero cases in our community to date and we'd like to keep it that way," said Dean Cochrane, emergency co-ordinator for Peguis First Nation.

The city of Brandon has seen a surge of cases of the disease caused by the new coronavirus in recent weeks, with a cluster of at least 64 people. Last week, several businesses in Steinbach announced they would shut down after a rash of cases were confirmed.

"A lot of our people that do not travel are very worried that individuals that do travel may eventually end up bringing it into our community and we want to try and safeguard from that," Cochrane said.

Public health officials have said repeatedly that a large chunk of Manitoba's COVID-19 cases came from people who travelled outside the province. Provincial rules require anyone arriving from provinces east of Manitoba to self-isolate, although restrictions on travellers from western provinces were lifted in June.

The Peguis restrictions also require anyone entering any of the businesses in the community to wear a face mask.