Any dreams of household gathering size limits increasing in Manitoba, have been put on hold for a few more weeks.

Manitoba's top doctor announced Thursday afternoon that the province will be tweaking its public health orders, but not for anything related to household or outdoor gatherings. The changes include allowing liquor cart sales on golf courses and increasing the maximum attendance at self-help meetings to 25.

The changes will come into effect on Friday, April 9th at 12:01 am. Chief Provincial Public Health Officer Dr. Brent Roussin says the orders will then be extended to April 30th. Initially, the current public health orders were set to expire on April 16th.

"We really weren't in a position to offer any broader reopening at this point because of our slowly increasing rates as well as the risks posed by the variants of concern that we see here in Manitoba," explains Dr. Roussin. "We can see the large effects in other jurisdictions in Canada at this point."

When it comes to allowing liquor cart sales on golf courses, Dr. Roussin says when the last public health orders were made, they did not anticipate golf courses being open by early April.

"There wasn't a provision that said they really couldn't, it was just the way we framed the orders at that point, it just didn't fit for golf courses," he explains. "There really isn't a public health risk to have that go on."

Meanwhile, Manitoba has now had back-to-back days of COVID-19 new case counts in excess of 100.

"We're watching things really closely," says Dr. Roussin. "When you look at what's happened in other jurisdictions because of the variant of concern, because of the B117 variant that we see here, it is concerning."

Dr. Roussin adds Manitoba will certainly see a third wave of COVID-19.