Dr. Brent Roussin will begin his testimony at 9:30...

Here's a little background on the constitutional challenge from earlier this week..

Lanette Siragusa testifies in Manitoba courtroom that hospital staff were exhausted, facing tough decisions https://globalnews.ca/news/7835769/siragusa-testify-constitutional-challenge-manitoba-courtroom/

This is day 5 of the two week hearing

Justice Glenn Joyal is now in the room and court will begin. Jared Brown will be doing the cross -examination of Dr. Roussin

Roussin says he reports directly to Minister of Health and deputy Minister

Brown asks if the vast majority of Roussin and his team's time is spent on the pandemic. He says yes.

Brown asked if asymptomatic spread does not appear to be a driver of infection. Roussin says he cannot agree on that.

Roussin say the goal they (and special advisory committee) came up with in January was to minimize morbidity and mortality while minimizing social disruption

Roussin is being questioned about pcr tests .. he says a day of 400 +'s shows him that in about 10 days 28 people would be admitted to hospital. It says it provides a very good idea of trend and depiction of acute care burden

Roussin says they are looking at population level data which gives them a very accurate idea of what is happening with COVID-19.

Doctor says the single biggest risk factor during the first wave was age (when it comes to serious outcomes). He also says renal disease, hypertension, obesity also (to name a few) are also factors

He adds that up until February it was primarily those over 60 who were having the most serious outcomes.

Brown going through daily and weekly reports the doctor receives.

Roussin says the Indigenous population was disproportionately impacted in Manitoba's second wave.

Brown asking Roussin about the similarities between COVID-19 and the flu. He says yes they are both mRNA viruses and can have some similar symptoms.. but Roussin adds they are vastly different respiratory viruses

"It's important to know where the substantial differences are." - Roussin

Roussin speaking about how the health care system was impacted in November and he says that also has an impact on sick people's morbidity and mortality who don't have COVID

Brown is talking about different jurisdictions and measures they put it. He says some went stricter to "draconian measures" -- Roussin says there has been a varied response around the world but they kept a watch on what others were doing

Brown asking again about PCR tests. Roussin says they are very useful when looking at greater population level of what they are seeing with the virus. Roussin says they know 7% of positive tests will be in hospital 10 days from now.

Court is back in session. Dr. Roussin now being asked about hospital capacity from earlier in the pandemic and how they are still strained now.

Roussin talking about elective surgeries that were cancelled in the fall. He says they have never caught up from that. He adds that while elective these are still surgeries that are needed for people and can impact their quality of life in the meantime while they wait

Brown saying it appears there were open ICU beds in nov/dec. Roussin says hospitals were over capacity, are still over capacity.

Roussin says they were over capacity since Nov and says it wasnt until sometime in January that "some" surgery was being scheduled again but "we've never recovered"

Roussin asked about faith based gatherings over the holidays. He says those were not allowed under health orders. They knew it was very difficult but Manitoba was in a critical stage

Roussin says if they were getting 700 cases in a day they cannot adequately trace people in a day the way they want to. He says they did not exceed this capacity during 2nd wave.. but says contact tracing was delayed.

Roussin asked the annual cost of the contact tracing program. He says he is not sure, does not have the figure in front of him

Brown asks Roussin about changing the order previously to allow those who live alone to have one visitor.. "You didn't do a study on loneliness before" making that change did you? he asks..

Roussin says no he did not

Roussin says in November they were at such a critical stage "we could not get this wrong" he said. They needed to limit drive up church services etc. They needed people to stay home

He says transmission was widespread "we needed to stop these transmission chains now" - he says they couldn't continue having hundreds of people gather for church in their cars. "We needed people to stay home"

It is almost 3 o'clock. Dr. Roussin has been testifying since 9:30 this morning and is still on the cross examination from the churches lawyer. It's entirely possible he could be on the stand for another day at this rate.

Roussin says he engages widely with public health experts, experts in different areas when looking at drugs, suicides and other potential harm areas. He says nothing is taken lightly. Brown being combative saying he sees no evidence of any of this and says he is skeptical

Says he is skeptical that downstream costs are taken into consideration by the doctor when he makes orders.

Roussin says "we continually review the impact on the health care system as a whole" -- mental health and other areas included.

He also says he is bound to take the least restrictive means and that he has heard repeatedly from doctors and others who have pushed for him to add in more restrictions.

Roussin says he always considers the "unintended consequences" of health measures and restrictions before they implement them. Says it's always a balance.

It's now 4:30. Lawyer's for the province have yet to have their chance to cross Roussin. Applicant lawyer still going.

ALSO - Roussin supposed to be at the Legislature to announce new health restrictions tonight at 6.

And Brown has finished. The crown will not be posing any questions to the doctor.

It's expected evidence will finish being presented in this case by Monday.

And court is now done for the day as Dr. Roussin will now be switching gears and preparing for a live 6 pm press conference -- we will be carrying it live on @globalwinnipeg