Four new Omicron cases detected in Manitoba

Virologist reacts to Manitoba's first Omicron case With the first case of the Omicron variant reported in Manitoba, CTV's Maralee Caruso speaks with Virologist Jason Kindrachuk.

Four new cases of the Omicron variant have been detected in Manitoba, the province announced on Wednesday.

This comes one day after Manitoba reported its first case of the Omicron variant.

The province said one of the individuals recently travelled from one of the 10 federally advised countries, while the other cases are close contacts and are currently asymptomatic.

Manitoba also announced three new deaths from COVID-19 and 178 new cases on Wednesday.

The deaths on Wednesday include a man in his 40s from the Southern Health region, and a man in his 90s from the Southern Health region linked to an outbreak at Salem Home personal care home. The third death was a woman in her 100s from Winnipeg.

Since the pandemic started, 1,341 Manitobans have died from COVID-19.

With the new cases on Wednesday, there have been 69,113 total COVID-19 cases in the province since the pandemic began. Three cases were removed due to a data correction.

Health officials said of the 178 cases announced Wednesday, 96 were in people who were unvaccinated, 71 were in fully vaccinated people, and 11 were in partially vaccinated people.

There are 153 people in Manitoba hospitals with COVID-19; of those, 95 people have active cases. There are 34 Manitobans in the ICU with COVID-19, with 26 of these people having active cases.

The province said of the active cases in hospital, 59 are not vaccinated, 29 are fully vaccinated and seven are partially vaccinated.

Of the 26 ICU cases, all but one are in unvaccinated people. The remaining case is in a fully vaccinated Manitoban.

Manitoba’s five-day test positivity rate is 6.4 per cent, and it is 4.4 per cent in Winnipeg.