Manitoba reports more than 160 COVID-19 cases over two days

Manitoba chief provincial public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin speaks during the daily briefing at the Manitoba Legislative Building, in Winnipeg, Thursday Aug. 27, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/David Lipnowski

WINNIPEG — Manitoba has reported 167 new COVID-19 cases that have been identified over the past two days, along with four more deaths connected to the virus.

On Tuesday, the province reported the new cases, which included 71 cases from Monday and 96 cases Tuesday, according to Dr. Brent Roussin, Manitoba’s chief provincial public health officer. No COVID-19 information was released by the province on Monday due to the Louis Riel Day holiday.

The cases from Monday and Tuesday include:

These cases bring the five-day test positivity rate to 5.9 per cent in Manitoba, and 4.5 per cent in Winnipeg. The total number of cases in Manitoba is at 30,932, though one was removed due to a data correction.

Roussin said on average, the province is seeing two to three contacts per case. He said there is a huge range in the number of contacts per case – from zero to more than sixty.

Along with the cases, the province reported four deaths – all of which happened in the Winnipeg region.

The deaths include a man in his 60s, a man and woman in their 90s, and a man in his 70s whose death has been linked to the outbreak at the St. Boniface Hospital in unit B5.

These deaths bring the total number of COVID-19 deaths in Manitoba to 875.

The province said 28,432 people have recovered from COVID-19, while 1,625 people still have active cases.

There were 230 people in hospital with COVID-19 as of Tuesday, which includes 144 people who are no longer infectious but still need care. Of the 26 people in intensive care with COVID-19, there are 13 who are no longer infectious, but still require critical care.

The province said 1,390 tests were completed on Monday, bringing the total number of tests completed since early February 2020 to 503,523.