Manitoba has deadly day with five COVID-19 deaths, 179 new cases Thursday

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WINNIPEG — Manitoba's death toll took a jump on Thursday as the province recorded five new deaths, including a man in his 30s.

This brings the total to 1,281 since the pandemic started.

Three of the deaths happened in the Winnipeg area, a man in his 30s, a woman in her 70s, and a man in his 70s linked to the Delta variant.

The other two deaths were in the Southern Health Region, both connected to the outbreak at the Third Crossing Manor outbreak, a man in his 80s and a woman in her 80s.

The province also provided more information about the deaths that happened on Tuesday and Wednesday.

On Tuesday, the death was a woman in her 90s in the Prairie Mountain Health Region connected to an unspecified variant of concern and she was part of the outbreak at the Benito Personal Care home.

The deaths on Wednesday were a man in his 70s from Prairie Mountain and a man in his 60s from the Southern Health Region.

Another 179 cases of COVID-19 were also identified, pushing the overall to 66,184. Manitoba currently has 1,404 active cases.

The majority of the new cases were among unvaccinated individuals with 94, followed by 77 fully vaccinated people and eight partially vaccinated Manitobans.

The Southern Health Region continues to have the highest number of new cases with 69, followed by Winnipeg with 43. The Northern Health Region saw a significant jump in cases with 32, the Prairie Mountain Health Region had 28 and the Interlake-Eastern Health Region had seven cases.

Manitoba's five-day test positivity rate is 5.4 per cent, while Winnipeg's is 2.9 per cent.

Hospitals continue to have a high number of COVID patients with 157; One hundred and eleven of those cases are active.

In the ICU, there are 30 cases, with 24 people still infectious.

More than half of Manitoba's active cases in hospitals are unvaccinated with 57, while 47 are fully vaccinated and seven are partially vaccinated.

In the ICU, 19 are not vaccinated and five are fully vaccinated.

On Wednesday, 3,682 tests were performed, bringing the total to 1,141,753 since February 2020.

OUTBREAKS AT SCHOOLS AND CARE HOME

The province is advising people of two new school outbreaks, one in Brandon and one in Winnipeg.

New Era School in Brandon is dealing with an outbreak in its grade 4/5 class, while Ecole Sacre-Coeur in Winnipeg has an outbreak in a grade 2 class.

Those classes have been moved to remote learning and the schools are now at restricted or orange on the pandemic response system.

Two other outbreaks are also being announced, one at the Amber Meadow Retirement Home in Winnipeg and the other at the Arborg Personal Care Home in Arborg.

Both facilities have been moved to red or critical on the pandemic response system.