Manitoba reports 31 new COVID-19 cases, 1 death

Manitoba health officials reported 31 new COVID-19 cases and one additional death Monday.

Dr. Brent Roussin, the province’s public health officer said the latest victim is a man in his 70s from the Interlake-Eastern Health region connected to the Alpha variant, first identified in the United Kingdom.

Manitoba reported 150 new cases and one death Saturday and Sunday.

Manitoba has stopped sending out media releases with daily case numbers over the weekend, but data is updated on the province’s COVID-19 dashboard.

0:29 Manitoba’s COVID-19 numbers – July 12

Roussin said Monday the death reported Sunday was a woman in her 40s from the Winnipeg Health region.

The latest cases include 20 from the Winnipeg Health region, two each in the Prairie Mountain and Southern Health regions, three from the Northern Health region, and four found in the Interlake-Eastern Health region.

Roussin said 1,332 lab tests for COVID-19 were completed Sunday.

There are currently 138 Manitobans in hospital as a result of COVID-19, including 30 in Manitoba ICUs and three receiving critical care out of province.

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Roussin said 74 per cent of the 412 people hospitalized due to COVID-19 in June had not received a shot of vaccine, and 22 per cent had one dose.

He said 90 of the 412 COVID-19 patients hospitalized last month ended up in ICU, and of those, 77 per cent had no vaccine dose and three per cent had one shot.

“We don’t bring this up to blame or to shame anyone, or to blame anyone for the reason of their illness — we’re here showing the power of vaccine,” Roussin said.

“You can see the incontrovertible evidence of the value of vaccines right now in Manitoba.”

Meanwhile a previously declared outbreak at St. Boniface Hospital, unit M3 in Winnipeg has ended, the province said.

Manitoba has recorded a total of 56,920 cases and 1,162 deaths liked to the virus since March 2020.

At last word there are 1,025 active cases of COVID-19 in Manitoba and the provincial  five-day test positivity rate is five per cent.

Winnipeg’s five-day test positivity rate was 4.1 per cent as of Monday morning.

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.