Manitoba has 40 new positive coronavirus cases as of Friday morning, according to provincial health officials.
That brings the province’s total number of cases to 1,540 — 325 which are active. Eleven Manitobans are in hospital, with three in intensive care. Manitoba’s number of COVID-19-related deaths remains at 16.
Public health officials say there has been a “concerning increase in the number of cases in Winnipeg,” with 29 of Friday’s new cases occurring within the city.
Four more cases are in the Prairie Mountain region, four in Interlake-Eastern, and three in the Southern Health region.
Manitobans are being encouraged to focus on the fundamentals — handwashing, wearing a mask, observing social distancing — to help reduce the spread of the virus.
Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister said people have to be diligent and take precautions against a virus that he calls a “nefarious and dangerous adversary.”
But he says it’s also noteworthy that the percentage of people testing positive has been dropping.
Pallister appeared to hint that Manitoba is close to a decision on whether it will sign on to the federal government’s new smartphone app, which notifies users when they have been in close contact with someone infected with COVID-19.
Ontario, Newfoundland and Labrador, Saskatchewan and New Brunswick have adopted the app, and Pallister says Manitoba is taking a close look.
“It’s under investigation. We’re also vitally concerned with protecting people’s privacy and have to balance those two things effectively,” Pallister said in a conference call from Ottawa with reporters.
“We’ve got to learn to live with the realities of COVID. And one of the realities is that if somebody gets infected, we need to be able to track and trace quickly. And so yeah, that work is continuing ambitiously.”
–With files from The Canadian Press
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