Manitoba adds three new COVID-19 deaths, hospital numbers and test positivity rate stay low

WINNIPEG — Manitoba health officials announced three new deaths related to COVID-19 on Wednesday, pushing the death toll to 835.

Dr. Jazz Atwal, acting deputy chief provincial public health officer, said the three deaths announced were from Monday. The province did not announce new deaths on Tuesday due to a data reset that occurred.

Two of the deaths are from the Winnipeg area and are both women, one in her 70s and one in her 80s.

The other death was a woman in her 90s from the Southern Health Region linked to the Heritage Life Personal Care Home outbreak.

The province also announced 126 new cases bringing the total since the start of the pandemic to 29,858.

One previously announced case was removed due to a data correction.

The Northern Health Region had the largest number of new cases with 55, Winnipeg had 32 new cases, 24 are from the Interlake-Eastern Health Region, eight are from the Southern Health Region and seven are in the Prairie Mountain Health Region.

The five-day test positivity rate is 6.9 per cent in Manitoba and 3.9 per cent in Winnipeg.

There are 3,358 active cases in Manitoba and 25,665 people have recovered.

There are 105 people in hospital with COVID-19, 22 of which are in intensive care.

Hospitals also have another 155 people who have recovered from COVID-19 but still require care, 12 of those people are in the ICU.

On Tuesday, 1,833 tests were completed, bringing the total to 482,110 since February 2020.

CONSIDERING NEW HEALTH ORDERS

As cases and test positivity rates continue to stay low, Atwal said the province is looking at all options for the next set of health orders.

The current orders in place are set to expire at 11:59 p.m. on Feb. 12.

"The level of success we see during the modest reopening will determine the amount we are able to open as these orders expire," said Atwal.

"We have said before nothing is off the table. That remains the case and consideration is being given to several options."

He added how the new orders look all depends on how well Manitobans follow the current orders and he advises people to not skirt the rules.

"You're not only putting yourself at risk, but you and those you gather with are impacting the reopening process. We all need to continue to make these sacrifices in the short-term so we can be safe in the long-term."

Atwal was also asked if the vaccine rollout is impacting the health restrictions at all.

"The vaccine supply really isn't impacting decisions made regarding restrictions,” he said. “We still look at cases, we look at hospitalizations, ICU usage, test positivity.

"With the small numbers of vaccines that are available right now, it has no impact in relation to how we look at the orders."