Manitoba public health officials confirmed Saturday that two additional deaths due to COVID-19 have been reported from the Winnipeg health region, along with 349 new cases.
The first death is a woman in her 90s linked to an outbreak at Maples Personal Care Home.
The second is a woman in her 50s. There was no information on whether or not she had underlying health conditions.
The current five-day COVID-19 test positivity rate is 8.7 per cent.
The test positivity rate in Winnipeg is 9.9 per cent, however, the province says this number is less reliable due to the smaller sample size. In addition, officials say it does not reflect the situation in other parts of the province, as cases continue to be identified outside Winnipeg.
Of the 349 new cases, one was identified Tuesday, three were identified Wednesday, 131 were identified Thursday and 214 were identified on Friday, including:
- 33 cases in the Interlake–Eastern health region
- 35 cases in the Northern health region
- 16 cases in the Prairie Mountain Health region
- 34 cases in the Southern Health–Santé Sud health region
- 231 cases in the Winnipeg health region.
There are currently 3,010 known active cases and 2,646 individuals have recovered from COVID-19.
The number of deaths due to COVID-19 is now 67.
The province says hospitalization and intensive care unit information is not available at this time due to data processing issues.
On Thursday, the St. Boniface Hospital’s ICU was over capacity.
The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority says Winnipeg’s ICU capacity is at 96 percent as of 11:30 a.m. Saturday.
Laboratory testing numbers show 2,320 tests were completed Friday, bringing the total number of lab tests completed since early February to 255,942.
A new drive-thru COVID-19 testing site opened Saturday at the Manitoba Public Insurance building at 125 King Edward St. in Winnipeg.
The site will operate from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily and will be performing up to 400 tests per day once fully established.
Starting Monday, Winnipeg will move to Critical level (red) on the Pandemic Response System.
The Southern Health–Santé Sud, Prairie Mountain Health and Interlake–Eastern health regions will move to the Restricted level (orange). The Northern health region moved to the Restricted level (orange) on Oct. 26.