‘I still have nightmares’: Impacts of COVID-19 still felt in Manitoba five years later

A sign saying people need to wear a face mask during the COVID-19 pandemic. Uploaded March 12, 2025. (CTV News Winnipeg)

The mask worn by a bride on her wedding day is just one of the artifacts being collected from the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in Manitoba.

Manitoba Museum history curator Roland Sawatzky has been working on the collection over the past half decade – bringing in pieces of art to preserve that moment in time.

“100 years in the future – that’s when it’s going to be important in a different way that we can’t imagine right now,” he told CTV News. “It’s important for all those different generations coming forward.”

For Manitoba, it began five years ago on a Thursday afternoon. Public health officials announced Manitoba’s first presumptive case of COVID-19.

“I certainly remember receiving the text from our lab colleagues that we had our first case,” Dr. Brent Roussin, Manitoba’s chief public health officer, told CTV News.

With that announcement, Manitobans were thrust into a new world – a world of mask mandates and social distancing, quarantine and lockdowns, variants and vaccinations.

It also brought convoy protests over health orders and vaccine mandates.

Thinking back on it all now, Roussin said he believes the pandemic revealed “fault lines” in society, as misinformation and disinformation grew exponentially.

“I think the really lasting effect of this pandemic, in addition to… a tragic loss of life directly to the virus, will be those fault lines that were created and that we still see today, and we still see them propagating.”

A little more than two weeks after the first case was announced, Roussin held another news conference announcing the first death related to the virus. In the weeks and months ahead, Roussin’s grim daily bulletins warned of surging deaths, many in personal care homes.

Among them was Eddie Calisto-Tavares’s father, who died during an outbreak at the Maples Personal Care Home.

Five years later, her grief still comes in waves.

“I still have nightmares of being the only one at the Maples, with so many people crying for help, and there was no one there to help them,” she said.

“It’s horrendous, really, when you think about it. I try not to think about it a lot.”

Since then, Calisto-Tavares has been advocating for changes to the system – like increased staff.

“I think about all the professionals that work in long-term care and how traumatized they were also by what happened to the residents.”

Sue Vovchuk, executive director of the Long Term & Continuing Care Association of Manitoba, said progress is being made. She said staff ratios have improved and there are plans in place to deal with infection control.

Still, she said there is more work to be done.

“There needs to be capital investment with our existing infrastructure. We have 124 personal care homes in Manitoba, and they’re all in varying stages of aging.”

While the pandemic may be behind Manitobans, Roussin warns the COVID-19 virus is not.

“We see it transmitted year-round right now,” he said, repeating the messaging that became a sort of mantra during his daily bulletins.

“Staying home when ill, washing hands, and then of course vaccines, especially if you’re at risk of severe outcomes.”

Back at the museum, Sawatzky’s collection isn’t on public display. He’s saving it for future generations.

“It was a very difficult time with repercussions that we’re still feeling today,” he said. “But what you see here is the best side of people, their creativity and their love for others.”

- With files from CTV’s Michelle Gerwing