Manitoba's Health Minister says rising case numbers and transmission of COVID-19 throughout the province is behind new public health orders announced on Friday.

"Case counts and hospitalization rates are rising," Minister Audrey Gordon says, "and we must be proactive in protecting our healthcare system and ensure we have hospital beds available to continue to provide care for patients in need." Gordon made the announcement alongside Dr. Brent Roussin at a press conference.

Religious gatherings in one health region, postponed surgeries, and new requirements of vaccination for youth sports were all among the announcements made.

Religious gatherings in the Southern Health region will now be limited to 25 people if unvaccinated people are allowed. However, organizations will be allowed to divide their space to allow for physically-distanced cohorts. Roussin says that sites that are able to cohort will then be limited to 25 per cent capacity, up to a maximum of 250 people.

Roussin says that masks must be worn at all times and cohorts must remain separated, meaning they should not mingle with one another. 

If services are made up of people who are vaccinated, or under the age of 12 and not eligible for vaccines, then no capacity limits will be in place.

The new restrictions for gatherings go into place at 12:01 a.m. on Saturday, November 13.

Youth participating in indoor sports will also now be required to either show proof of at least one dose of vaccination or a recent negative COVID test in order to participate. The requirement applies to youth between the ages of 12 and 17. There will be a grace period to allow parents and youth to make decisions, Roussin says. The requirements will go into effect on December 5.

Negative tests must come from participating pharmacies and cannot come from provincial testing sites. Provincial testing sites are for symptomatic people only.

Roussin says that Manitoba is seeing the largest increase in transmissions in the 0-19 year-old-age group. He says that's consistent with other regions, "but certainly a concern which leads us into some of the restrictions we are doing today."

Manitoba has seen an upward trend in case counts and Roussin says that current modelling shows that will continue, straining hospitals and ICUs. Several surgeries are also being postponed in a bid to free up space in hospitals.

Calling the projections concerning, Roussin says "we know that if we don't take further steps, we certainly are at risk of overwhelming the hospital system again."

graphs showing case counts and vaccination status(Manitoba Government)

There were 193 new cases announced on Friday, with 96 cases in unvaccinated people, nine in people partially vaccinated, and another 88 cases in people who are fully vaccinated. Manitoba's test positivity rate has now risen to 6.1 per cent.

There are currently 145 hospitalizations, with 110 of them active cases. There are 30 people in the ICU. Of them, 23 are active cases with 21 people not vaccinated and 2 fully vaccinated.

This is a developing story. More to come.