Manitoba announces 12 new COVID-19 deaths, 244 cases on Christmas Eve

WINNIPEG — Manitoba health officials announced 12 more Manitobans have died related to COVID-19, including a woman in her 30s.

The news was released in an online bulletin Thursday afternoon, which also added 244 new COVID-19 cases.

All but three deaths announced Thursday were reported in Winnipeg. The bulletin said none of the deaths were linked to any ongoing outbreaks.

The new deaths bring the death toll to 617 since March.

The youngest death reported on Thursday was a woman in her 30s from the Southern Health Region. The region also reported a woman in her 80s had died from COVID-19.

In Winnipeg, the deaths included:

The Northern Health Region reported one death, a man in his 80s.

The majority of the cases announced in Manitoba on Thursday were in the Winnipeg Health Region, where 114 new cases were announced.

The remaining cases include:

Thursday's cases bring the total number of cases in Manitoba since Mach to 23,624. There are 4,489 active cases and 18,518 people have recovered from COVID-19.

As of Thursday, 346 people are in hospital with COVID-19. Of that number, 254 have active COVID-19, while 92 people are no longer infectious but still require care.

There are 41 people in ICU due to the virus, with 35 patients having an active COVID-19 case. Six people in ICU are no longer infectious but still require critical care.

The province said 2,163 tests were completed Wednesday, bringing the total number of lab tests completed to 411,618 since February.

The five-day test positivity rate for both Manitoba and Winnipeg is 10.6 per cent.

The province will not release a COVID-19 bulletin on Christmas or Boxing Day. The next bulletin is scheduled for Dec. 27.