Active COVID-19 cases in Manitoba fall below 100

Active COVID-19 cases in Manitoba less than 100 Only one new COVID-19 case in Manitoba as the number of active cases is now less than 100. CTV's Michelle Gerwing reports.

WINNIPEG — Provincial health officials have announced one new case of COVID-19 in Manitoba.

Dr. Brent Roussin, the province's chief public health officer, made the announcement on Tuesday, adding this brings the province's total number of COVID-19 cases to 255.

Seven people are in hospital, four of which are in intensive care. The province said 150 people have recovered from the virus and there are currently 99 active cases.

The death toll in Manitoba remains at six.

On Monday, Cadham Provincial Laboratory performed 314 tests, bringing the total to 20,319 since early February.

Health officials also noted that testing criteria has expanded to make sure there is capacity to do additional testing.

Anyone who is showing symptoms, including a cough, runny nose, a sore throat and a fever, should call Health Links at 204-788-8200 or (toll-free) at 1-888-315-9257.

For more information about COVID-19, Manitobans can visit the province's website.

MANITOBA MODELLING

Roussin said the province is continuing to work on modelling, which would help plan and learn more about the virus.He said the province can use data from other provinces and national data, but he said they need to use Manitoba specific data for modelling to be useful.

"Because we are behind, we are at different aspects of our outbreak compared to many jurisdicitions, our data, our numbers have been quite low. It's difficult to come up with useful models with those type of numbers," said Roussin.

He added they will continue to work on a model and share the information when they have more useful models.

HOW LONG WILL PHYSICAL DISTANCING MEASURES LAST?

Roussin said he understands there is more to health than just COVID-19 right now and that being socially distant is impacting Manitobans.

He said he wants to leave the measures in place for the shortest time possible, but said the measures won't be relaxed until certain indicators are met.

"It is certainly necessary to be looking at those things because a lot of Manitobans have been affected by this. So we want to make sure our public health indicators are met, but once they are, we're going to look to cautiously restart our economy and monitor the situation really closely."

STATE OF EMERGENCY

On Monday, Premier Brian Pallister extended the state of emergency in the province until May 18 in order to ensure measures remain in place to protect the health of Manitobans.

The province also announced that testing has expanded to be able to perform up to 2,000 tests a day if necessary.

Roussin said on Monday that now all symptomatic workers or volunteers at workplaces deemed essential services are eligible for testing.

- With files from CTV's Kayla Rosen Danton Unger.