Two new COVID-19 deaths in Manitoba; new case count falls below 300 Tuesday

$1M for business COVID recovery The Manitoba government is giving $1 million to help industries hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic recover.

WINNIPEG — Manitoba health officials announced two new deaths related to COVID-19 on Tuesday, bringing the death toll to 1,035.

The deaths were a man in his 30s from Winnipeg and a woman in her 80s from the Southern Health Region. Her death was linked to B.1.1.7 variant.

Officials also updated the details on the four deaths that were reported Monday.

Two deaths were from the Prairie Mountain Health Region, a man in his 40s and a man in his 50s, and both were linked to the B.1.1.7 variant.

The other two deaths were men in their 70s both from the Southern Health Region.

The province also saw a significant dip in new cases as 259 were added, pushing the total to 49,046.

The five-day test positivity rate in Manitoba is 13.8 per cent.

Winnipeg once again had the highest number of new cases with 187 and the test positivity rate is 15.9 per cent.

The Southern Health Region had 28 new cases, 15 were identified in both the Interlake-Eastern area and the Prairie Mountain area, and 14 cases came from the Northern Health Region.

Manitoba currently has 4,945 active cases and 43,066 people have recovered.

On the variant of concern front, Manitoba has had 9,104 variant cases and 2,651 of the cases are active.

The majority of the cases are unspecified with 4,971, and there are 3,984 B.1.1.7 variant cases. The P.1 case has also climbed to 99. There have been 32 B.1.351 cases, three B.1.617 cases, eight B.1.617.1 cases, and seven B.1.617.2.

There have been 54 deaths related to variants.

There are 253 people in hospital with active COVID-19, including 59 people in ICU.

Another 61 people are no longer infectious, including 20 in intensive care.

A spokesperson for Shared Health said of the COVID-19 patients in hospital, 129 of them were only tested for the virus once they arrived at hospital, 21 of those people are in ICU.

Of the 129 patients, the majority of them who tested positive were over the age of 50. Ninety of the patients are between the ages of 50 and 89, with 30 people between the age of 50 and 59 making up the largest portion of that group.

"These statistics show how important it is for all of us to get tested if we are experiencing symptoms consistent with COVID-19," the spokesperson said in an email to CTV News. "Waiting too long to get tested or outright refusing to get tested can not only lead to negative health outcomes for yourself, but it can cause further transmission of the virus to loved ones and the general community."

On Monday, 2,398 tests were performed, bringing the total to 751,948 since February 2020.

LEILA SUPERSITE HAS APPOINTMENTS AVAILABLE

As COVID-19 case counts and the test positivity rates continue to stay high, health officials are once again urging Manitobans to get vaccinated as soon as possible.

As part of the vaccine bulletin, the province said there are thousands of appointments available at the Leila supersite between May 26 and 28.

If people are wanting to book an appointment, they can do so online or by calling 1-844-626-8222.

Manitoba has so far administered 761,132 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine and the province has been shipped 878,980 doses.