Manitoba adds two new COVID-19 deaths; hospital numbers below 600

Vaccine campaign continues amid ending mandates While Manitoba's pandemic mandates will end in March, the province's vaccination campaign will continue. CTV's Michelle Gerwing explains.

Manitoba added two new deaths on Friday related to COVID-19, bringing the death toll to 1,649.

The deaths include a woman in her 60s from Southern Health and a man in his 50s from Winnipeg.

Officials also provided more details on the deaths reported on Thursday.

Three of the deaths were connected to personal care homes:

The other two deaths were a man in his 90s from Winnipeg and a woman in her 70s from the Prairie Mountain Health Region.

COVID hospital numbers also dipped again as there are 583 people in hospitals, 302 of those patients are still infectious.

The ICU also saw a decrease in COVID-19 patients to 33; Thirteen of the patients have active COVID.

The province added 343 new COVID cases and there are 11,364 active cases.

Health officials have previously stated that numbers could be higher as at home rapid tests are not reported.

Manitoba's five-day test positivity rate is 18.5 per cent.

NOVAVAX EXPECTED IN MANITOBA BY MID-MARCH

With Health Canada approving a new COVID-19 vaccine called Novavax, the provincial government said it is expecting the first shipment by mid-March.

How many doses and where the vaccine will be available are not known yet.

To date, 86.1 per cent of eligible Manitobans have received one dose of a vaccine, 81.5 per cent are fully vaccinated and 43.1 per cent have three doses.

Officials also noted that 58.8 per cent of kids between the ages of five and 11 have received their first dose.