7 deaths, 145 new COVID-19 cases over two days reported in Manitoba

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WINNIPEG — Manitoba is reporting seven deaths and 145 new cases over the past two days in the province.

In the COVID-19 bulletin announced on Friday, Dr. Jazz Atwal, the deputy chief provincial public health officer, reported the province identified 91 new cases on Thursday and 54 new cases as of 9:30 a.m. on Friday. The province did not release a COVID-19 update on Thursday due to Canada Day.

The seven deaths reported on Friday included four deaths linked to the Alpha (B.1.1.7) variant; A woman in her 50s from Winnipeg, a woman in her 60s from the Southern Health Region, a man in his 60s from the Southern Health Region, and a man in his 60s from Winnipeg.

One death, a woman in her 70s from Winnipeg, was linked to an unspecified variant of concern.

The other two deaths, a woman in her 40s from Winnipeg and a man in his 70s from the Southern Health region, were not linked to variants, according to the bulletin.

The deaths reported Friday brings the total in Manitoba to 1,147. One death from June 30, a man in his 30s from the Interlake–Eastern health region, was removed due to a data correction.

Since March 2020, 56,306 COVID-19 cases have been reported in Manitoba. Six cases were removed due to data corrections.

Atwal said the average number of cases have been steadily declining in Manitoba.

“Right now, our trailing seven day average for cases is roughly 77 cases so that was a 20 per cent decline from last week to this week,” he said. “And I think we're going to continue to actually see that week after week."

On Friday, Manitoba also reported an outbreak in a unit at St. Boniface Hospital. Unit M3 has been moved to the critical or red level on the province’s pandemic response system. Information on the number of people impacted by the outbreak was not immediately available.

HOSPITALIZATIONS

The province said 163 Manitobans are currently hospitalized with COVID-19. Of those hospitalizations, 66 people have active COVID-19, and 91 people have COVID-19 , but are no longer infectious.

There are 49 Manitobans receiving intensive care, including 43 in Manitoba, and six in Ontario.

DELTA VARIANT NOW PRESENT THROUGHOUT MANITOBA

Atwal said the Delta variant, first identified in India, has now been identified in all five health regions in Manitoba. There are 239 confirmed cases of the variant, according to provincial data.

Of the cases identified, 86.2 per cent were either not immunized before their infection, or had only received one vaccine dose at the time.

“We do acknowledge some of these individuals may not have been eligible to be vaccinated, they may have had an appointment that came after they were infected or had barriers to access the vaccine,” Atwal said.

He encouraged Manitobans to receive both doses of a vaccine as quickly as they can, especially as all Manitobans 12 and older are eligible to receive both doses.

"New analysis by the Public Health of England shows for the first time that two doses of COVID-19 vaccines are highly effective against hospitalization from the Delta variant,” he said. "Getting vaccinated will help prevent severe illness from this variant, and continuing to follow the fundamentals, will help protect us even further.”