Manitoba sees lowest COVID-19 case count since September with 25 new cases Tuesday

WINNIPEG — Manitoba health officials are reporting the lowest daily COVID-19 case count since Sept. 22.

In the daily COVID-19 bulletin on Tuesday, the province announced 25 new cases, bringing the total number of cases since the start of the pandemic to 56,943. The province noted two cases were removed due to a data error.

The province is also reporting one COVID-19 related death, a man in his 40s from the Winnipeg Health Region. His death is linked to the B.1.1.7 (alpha) variant of concern.

The COVID-19 death toll now sits at 1,163 in Manitoba.

Thirteen of the news cases were in the Winnipeg Health Region. The five-day test positivity rate in the city continues to fall and is sitting at four per cent.

Of the remaining cases, seven came from the Southern Health Region, four cases were in the Northern Health Region, zero cases were in the Interlake-Eastern Health Region, and one was in the Prairie Mountain Health Region.

Manitoba currently has 982 active cases and 54,798 people who recovered.

The five-day test positivity rate is now 4.5 per cent provincially.

There are currently 133 Manitobans hospitalized with COVID-19 in Manitoba and neighbouring provinces.

The province said there are 51 people in hospital in Manitoba with active COVID-19, as well as 80 people in hospital with COVID-19 who are no longer infectious.

A total of 34 Manitoba patients are receiving intensive care for COVID-19, with nine of the patients considered to have active COVID-19.

The province also said two Manitoba patients with COVID-19 are in Ontario intensive care units.

So far, 43 patients receiving out-of-province ICU care have now returned to Manitoba hospitals.

On Monday, 972 COVID-19 tests were completed, bringing the total number of lab tests administered since early February 2020 to 847,831.

VARIANTS OF CONCERN

According to data updated Tuesday, the province now has had 16,078 total variant of concern cases.

Of those cases, 630 are still active and 15,280 people have recovered. The variant of concern death toll in Manitoba is 168.

The majority of the variant of concern cases in the province, 51.73 per cent, are unspecified variants.

The B.1.1.7 (alpha) variant of concern accounts for 43.79 per cent of the variant of concern cases in Manitoba.

The remaining variant of concern cases are split between the B.1.351 at 0.45 per cent, B.1.617 at 0.06 per cent, B.1.617.1 at 0.09 per cent, B.1.617.2 at 2.47 per cent, and P.1 at 1.41 per cent of variants.