Another COVID-19 death in Winnipeg as cases climb

WINNIPEG — Manitoba health officials have reported another death related to COVID-19 in Winnipeg, as active cases of COVID-19 continue to climb in the City.

On Friday provincial health officials confirmed a man in his 70s from the Winnipeg health region has died due to COVID-19. He had been a previously announced case that was related to the Parkview Place long-term care home outbreak.

The number of deaths related to the disease in Manitoba is now at 21.

This comes as the province announced 43 new cases of the disease on Friday, which brings the total number of active cases in Manitoba to 652.

The new cases include:

There are 18 people in hospital and seven in intensive care. As of Friday, 1,399 people have recovered from COVID-19.

The province said 1,454 tests were completed on Thursday, which brings the total number of lab tests done since early February to 188,098. The current five-day test positivity rate in Manitoba is 2.3 per cent.

The province is reminding people to only go for testing it they have symptoms of COVID-19 unless otherwise recommended by Public Health.

The majority of the cases remain in Winnipeg which has 560 active cases. The River East area of the city has 122 active cases as of Friday – the highest of any area in the city. The Downtown area follows with 105 active cases.

The Southern Health-Santé Sud region has 30 active cases, followed by the Interlake-Eastern region with 28 active cases, Prairie Mountain Health with 21 active cases, and the Northern health region with 13 active cases.

Since the first case of COVID-19 was announced in Manitoba on March 12, the province has had 2,072 total cases.