Manitoba records two COVID-19 variant deaths Thursday

WINNIPEG — Manitoba added two new deaths related to COVID-19 Thursday, both cases were linked to the Alpha variant.

The deaths were both women from Winnipeg, one in her 40s and one in her 70s.

There have been 1,177 deaths since the start of the pandemic.

The province also added 47 new COVID-19 cases; however, one previously announced case was removed due to a data correction.

The Interlake-Eastern region had 21 new cases, followed by Winnipeg with 13. Southern Health and Northern Health had six cases each and the Prairie Mountain Health Region had one case.

Manitoba's five-day test positivity rate is 2.1 per cent and in Winnipeg, it is 1.1 per cent.

There are 526 active cases and 55,845 people have recovered.

Hospital numbers continue to slowly decline as there are 102 Manitobans currently in care. Of those hospitalized, 35 have active COVID-19. There are 29 people in ICU, with 10 having active COVID-19.

On Wednesday, 1,673 tests were completed, bringing the total to 871,465 since February 2020.