The deaths of seven people who contracted COVID-19 were reported on Saturday — the highest number in a single day for Manitoba.
All of the individuals are from the Winnipeg health region.
Another 271 new cases of COVID-19 were added, bringing the total number of lab-confirmed cases in Manitoba to 7,689.
The current five-day COVID-19 test positivity rate is 9.4% -- the test positivity rate in Winnipeg is 9.6%.
Today’s data shows:
• 31 cases in the Interlake–Eastern health region;
• 22 cases in the Northern health region;
• 23 cases in the Prairie Mountain Health region;
• 39 cases in the Southern Health–Santé Sud health region; and
• 156 cases in the Winnipeg health region.
Active Case Removed From Dauphin Health District
On Friday, the province reported an active case in the Dauphin health district. That has now been removed, bringing the district back to 9 total cases of COVID-19. All are recovered.
Dr. Brent Roussin has explained there are a few possibilities for why this happens.
Graphic courtesy of the Government of Manitoba
One possibility is that a person may not be a resident of that health district, and so the case is removed and updated to another district where they currently reside. Roussin says another possibility is a false positive test.
“Sometimes we have probable cases that are symptomatic and a close contact to another case that we just declare as a case, pending lab results, and if the lab result comes back negative then sometimes they’ll be removed.”
The following Parkland health districts currently have active cases listed on the province’s online database: Swan River (10), Porcupine Mountain (3), Asessippi (7), Duck Mountain (1), Little Saskatchewan (4), Whitemud (8), and Agassiz Mountain (1). There are 32 active cases in Brandon.
The Eriksdale/Ashern health district has 63 active cases of COVID-19.
There are 4,460 active cases and 3,126 individuals who have recovered from COVID-19.
There are 159 people in hospital with 23 people in intensive care; and
The number of deaths due to COVID-19 is 103.
Province Focusing On Symptomatic Testing
Public health officials advise that in order to maintain the capacity for testing symptomatic people, testing appointments for people who are asymptomatic will not be booked unless directed by public health.
At this time, individuals who are not experiencing symptoms may be turned away from testing sites.
Employers are asked to only send employees for testing if they have symptoms or if testing has been recommended by public health officials.
On Monday the Southern Health region will join Winnipeg at 'critial' red on the Pandemic Response System.
Exposures in Prairie Mountain Health
The following possible exposures in the Prairie Mountain Health region have been reported by public health:
