Health officials say two more Manitobans have lost their battle with COVID-19 this week.
In a release Thursday the province says a woman in her 70s from the Interlake-Eastern Health region and a man in his 80s from the Winnipeg region are the latest victims of the pandemic.
The woman had been stricken with the Delta variant and the man’s death is linked to an unspecified variant of concern, the province says.
Manitoba has now recorded 1,203 deaths connected to COVID-19.
Meanwhile health officials said 64 new infections of the virus have been identified as of Thursday morning. They come after 49 cases were reported Wednesday.
Thursday’s new cases include 44 people who were not fully vaccinated, according to provincial health data.
The majority of the new cases — 23 — were found in the Southern Health region, 19 of which were among those who had not been fully vaccinated.
Nine of the 15 new cases found in both the Winnipeg and Northern Health regions were also not fully vaccinated. Half of the six new cases in the Prairie Mountain Health region were not fully vaccinated, and four of the five new cases identified in the Interlake-Eastern Health region had also not received two shots of vaccine.
As of Thursday morning 62 Manitobans are hospitalized as a result of COVID-19 and 12 patients are in ICU, the province said.
There are currently 599 active COVID-19 across Manitoba, including 370 confirmed to be variants of concern.
A provincial site tracking variants shows Manitoba currently has 17 active Alpha cases, 45 active Delta infections, and 308 active cases which have yet to be specified.
The five-day test positivity rate is 2.5 per cent provincially and 1.2 per cent in Winnipeg, according to health officials.
As of Thursday morning 84 per cent of eligible Manitobans have received at least one shot of vaccine and 79 per cent have received two doses, according to a provincial site tracking vaccinations.
Since March 2020 Manitoba has recorded 59,526 lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19.
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.