Halloween is just around the corner, and with the pandemic in full swing, the provincial government has issued some guidelines intended to help people enjoy the occasion while reducing the potential for COVID-19 spread.

As of the end of October, a handful schools in the Hanover School Divisions have experienced their first COVID-19 cases, including Niverville Middle School. Five of the division’s schools, those in Niverville and Landmark, have moved to provide optional at-home learning.

On Tuesday morning, the MCC Thrift Shop in Niverville received word that a volunteer at the store had tested positive for COVID-19. The individual had worked there on the morning of October 20.

There’s an old saying that warns, “The cure is worse than the disease.” The implication is that the solution for a problem causes more harm than good.

This past August, clusters of COVID-19 began to break out across the province after a summer with relatively few infections. The public’s attention, for a time, turned to the situation on Hutterite colonies when Dr. Brent Roussin, at one of his daily press briefings, made the announcement that of the 236 cases at the time in Manitoba, 148 of them were connected to “communal living situations.”

In the last few months, a number of Manitoba business have been the target of a sophisticated telephone scam in which the callers pose as employees of Manitoba Hydro.

A New Bothwell man has been charged in connection to a robbery that took place on Sunday, October 18, around 7:30 p.m. That evening, the St. Pierre-Jolys RCMP responded to a report of two young people, aged 16 and 17, who were robbed while walking to the store in New Bothwell.

Last week, the province warned that stepped-up enforcement was coming for people who ignore public health orders—and in the process, put their fellow Manitobans at risk. In a press conference on Wednesday, October 21, the province has followed through on that pledge.

Zoe Bardal and Barry Piasta of Niverville were honoured in late September by enVision Community Living.

Funny you ask me, Facebook… what is on my mind?