More than 500 Manitobans have now lost their lives to COVID-19.
Health officials said the virus has killed nine more Manitobans as of Tuesday morning, bringing the province’s COVID-19 death toll to 508.
The grim milestone comes as the province announced 272 new COVID-19 infections Tuesday. Health officials said a previously announced case has been removed due to a data correction, however, leaving Manitoba’s total number of cases reported since March at 21,535.
Six of the latest deaths are linked to ongoing outbreaks at personal care homes throughout the province.
COVID-19’s latest Manitoba victims include:
There are currently 389 people in hospital with 52 people in intensive care due to COVID-19. Those numbers include 78 patients considered to have recovered from the virus but who remain in hospital and eight who’ve recovered but remain in critical care beds, Manitoba’s chief provincial health officer, Dr. Brent Roussin said.
In a release the province said outbreaks declared at Vita and District Transitional Care Centre in Vita and Cedarwood Supporting Housing in Steinbach are over.
The five-day COVID-19 test positivity rate was 14.2 per cent provincially and 13.4 per cent in Winnipeg as of Tuesday.
Health officials say 1,561tests for novel coronavirus were done Monday, bringing the total number of tests done across the province since February to 392,078.
There were 5,762 active cases of COVID-19 across Manitoba as of Tuesday morning, according to provincial data.
Manitoba announced 241 new cases and nine additional deaths from the virus on Monday.
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.
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