Manitoba reports lowest daily COVID-19 count since September 2020

Public education needed for face masks Epidemiologist Dr. Colin Furness says face mask mandates without proper public messaging social violence and confusion could ensue.

WINNIPEG — Manitoba health officials are announcing 11 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday.

Of the new cases on Monday, five were from the Southern Health Region, three were in Winnipeg, two were in the Interlake-Eastern Health Region, one was in Northern Health Region and zero were reported in the Prairie Mountain Health Region.

This is the lowest number of cases recorded since Sept. 17, 2020, when 11 cases were also reported.

Officials said six previously announced cases were removed due to a data correction.

Manitoba's five-day test positivity rate is three per cent while Winnipeg has set a new low of 1.8 per cent.

Manitoba started recording the city's test positivity rate on Oct. 31, 2020.

The province also updated the deaths that occurred over the weekend. On Saturday, a man in his 80s from Winnipeg died from the B.1.1.7 variant and on Sunday, a man in his 50s from Southern Health died from an unspecified variant.

No deaths were reported on Monday.

Manitoba has had 57,456 cases and 1,172 people have died.

There are currently 528 active cases of COVID-19 and 55,756 people have recovered. There are 110 Manitobans in hospital, 39 of which have active COVID-19.

There are also 26 people in ICU; eight patients have active COVID-19.

On Sunday, 1,240 tests were completed, bringing the total to 867,027 since February 2020.

Dr. Brent Roussin, the chief provincial public health officer, continues to encourage people to get vaccinated, noting the more people get vaccinated, the sooner Manitoba will get out of this pandemic.

"We know we have some Manitobans that still are hesitant, I encourage you to speak to your health-care provider to get information related to that, to answer any questions you may have," said Roussin.

He added once Manitoba hits the post-pandemic phase, the province will switch to public health guidelines compared to restrictions.

The top doctor also noted that as more people get vaccinated, the more COVID-19 will turn into a disease among the unvaccinated.

"It's very likely we're going to see COVID transmission occurring in the unvaccinated, and we're going to see the severe outcomes in the unvaccinated," he said. "Our messaging right now, we're doing a lot of work on outreach, doing a lot of incentive work right now to try to get those rates up everywhere."