Manitoba reports 46 new COVID-19 cases, 1 death

Health officials are linking another Manitoban’s death to COVID-19.

The province’s latest COVID-19 victim is a woman in her 60s from the Southern Health region, officials said in a release Friday.

Her death comes as testing has found another 46 confirmed COVID-19 infections across the province.

The latest cases include 17 in the Northern Health region, 12 each in both the Winnipeg and Interlake-Eastern Health regions, four in the Southern Health region, and one in the Prairie Mountain Health region.

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Since March 2020, Manitoba has reported 57,593 COVID-19 cases and the deaths of 1,178 Manitobans have been linked to the virus.

Health officials say 1,613 lab tests for COVID-19 were completed Thursday. The five-day test positivity rate is 2.3 per cent provincially and 1.4 per cent in Winnipeg.

There are currently 542 active COVID-19 cases in Manitoba, including 326 confirmed to be of the more contagious variants of concern.

The majority of Manitoba’s active 190 variant cases are listed as unspecified on a provincial website tracking the strains.

Another 109 active variant cases are of the Alpha variant, first identified in the United Kingdom, 26 are of the Delta variant, first identified in India, and the province has one active case of the Gamma variant, first detected in Brazil.

Meanwhile, the number of Manitobans hospitalized due to COVID-19 fell below 100 for the first time in months Friday.

As of Friday morning, health officials said 93 people are in hospital as a result of the virus, down from 102 reported Thursday.

The number of people in an ICU as a result of COVID-19 also fell to 25 Friday, down from 29 reported 24 hours earlier.

Health officials say an outbreak at Marie Thorarinson Estates Assisted Living Facility in Arborg has been declared over.

As of Friday, the province says 1,782,514 first and second doses of vaccine have been administered in Manitoba.

That means 79.5 per cent of eligible Manitobans have received one dose and 69.3 per cent have received two shots.

Manitoba reported 46 net-new cases of COVID-19 and two deaths Thursday.

Questions about COVID-19? Here are some things you need to know:

Symptoms can include fever, cough and difficulty breathing — very similar to a cold or flu. Some people can develop a more severe illness. People most at risk of this include older adults and people with severe chronic medical conditions like heart, lung or kidney disease. If you develop symptoms, contact public health authorities.

To prevent the virus from spreading, experts recommend frequent handwashing and coughing into your sleeve. They also recommend minimizing contact with others, staying home as much as possible and maintaining a distance of two metres from other people if you go out. In situations where you can’t keep a safe distance from others, public health officials recommend the use of a non-medical face mask or covering to prevent spreading the respiratory droplets that can carry the virus. In some provinces and municipalities across the country, masks or face coverings are now mandatory in indoor public spaces.

For full COVID-19 coverage from Global News, visit our coronavirus page.