A new booth offering measles vaccination debuted this week at the Royal Manitoba Winter Fair in Brandon, which is being held at the same site as a January event linked to an outbreak of more than 30 cases.

The booth at the Keystone Centre, run by Shared Health, was the first of its kind and offered a chance for people to ask questions. The fair runs until Saturday, but the booth’s final day was Thursday.

“We are meeting people where they’re at,” Laureen Fingas said Thursday. “We want to ensure people have every opportunity, wherever they are, because we have busy lives, and we want to be sure that we are available.”

Fingas, a manager of public health services with Shared Health, says the goal was to provide evidence-based answers on misinformation and disinformation around the virus.

“We really want to emphasize on the vaccine safety and just the effectiveness that it has done in the last 50 years,” she said.

Fingas says having face-to-face conversations is more effective than sharing information online. She encourages Manitobans to ask their health-care providers for information.

There was a spike in measles cases after Manitoba Ag Days was held at the Keystone Centre earlier this year. The event was linked to more than 30 cases.

One doctor in southeast Manitoba is worried there could be a jump in cases after spring break.

Many new cases popped up after Christmas and New Year gatherings, Mahmoud Khodaveisi says. The medical officer of health with Southern Health says the majority of infections are within that health region.

“We are lucky there [are] no deaths related to measles in Manitoba,” he said Wednesday.

Provincial data up to March 28, released Thursday, shows 41 people in Manitoba have been hospitalized because of measles since February 2025. Thirty-eight of those people were unimmunized, or their immunization status was unknown.

Immunization rates increased in February and March of this year compared with previous years, Khodaveisi says, noting those rates are lower in southern Manitoba.

The number of measles cases remains high, with the provincial government reporting 393 confirmed infections and 61 probable cases so far this year. Last year, Manitoba saw 319 confirmed cases.

“The gap is still big,” Khodaveisi said. “Immunization is the best way … to prevent the infection.”

Khodaveisi said public health is not recommending people cancel gatherings. Instead, the responsibility lies on people to make sure they and their family members are up to date on vaccinations, he says.

Despite the concentration of infections in southern Manitoba, Adolfo Cuetara says most people seem unconcerned.

Cuetara, the executive director of the Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre in Morden, says if visitors are worried, they aren’t expressing that at the museum.

The number of visitors this year has been the same as previous years, he says.

“We are following daily communications with the province,” Cuetara said Wednesday. “So far, there is not any recommendation, special recommendation.”

If there are specific directives from the province in the future, the museum will follow them, he says. The discovery centre will also follow any orders given by the City of Morden.

As of Wednesday, pharmacists in the province could vaccinate people ages two to 19.

Although the order from Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara came into effect immediately, it could take weeks to put in place. Asagwara previously said the work now rests on the pharmacies, but the province would help them to deliver vaccines quickly.

The goal is to make sure as many Manitobans as possible have access to the free measles vaccine, the minister said.