More than 500 Manitobans in hospital with COVID-19, five deaths on Friday

Concerns over Manitoba's shifted pandemic approach Manitoba has shifted its COVID-19 approach, which has some concerned with how Manitobans will react. CTV's Michelle Gerwing reports.

More than 500 people are now in hospital with COVID-19 in Manitoba, with another five deaths reported on Friday.

According to the provincial COVID-19 dashboard, hospitalizations increased by 18 on Friday bringing the total number of COVID-19 hospitalizations to 517. Of those hospitalizations, 481 people have active cases.

There are 45 people in intensive care with the virus, including 43 people who have active cases.

As of Friday:

The province reported 84.9 per cent of eligible Manitobans have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine as of Friday, while 78.1 per cent have two doses and 33.4 per cent have three doses.

More than 64,000 doses have been administered to children ages five to 11, accounting for 51.4 per cent of the age group.

Five more deaths were reported on Friday, including two women in their 60s and 70s and a man in his 80s from Winnipeg, a woman in her 70s from the Interlake-Eastern Health region, and a woman in her 90s from Southern Health-Santé Sud.

This is in addition to the nine deaths reported by the province on Thursday, which include a man in his 60s and two women in their 70s and 80s from Winnipeg, three men in their 50s, 70s and 90s from the Interlake-Eastern health region, and a man in his 80s from Southern Health-Santé Sud.

The province also reported the deaths of a woman in her 80s from Winnipeg whose death has been linked to the outbreak at Fred Douglas Lodge and a man in his 80s from Winnipeg whose death has been linked to the outbreak at Poseidon Care Centre.

These deaths bring the total number of COVID-19 deaths in Manitoba to 1,443.

The provincial five-day test positivity rate dropped to 42.6 per cent on Friday, down from 44.9 per cent on Thursday. There were 2,487 laboratory tests completed on Thursday.

The province reported 1,215 new cases, bringing the total number of cases in Manitoba to 107,838, including 37,320 active cases and 69,075 recoveries.