Manitoba confirmed 114 new cases of COVID-19 Wednesday with the largest numbers of new infections coming from the southern health district.
The latest cases reported on the province’s online COVID-19 dashboard bring Manitoba’s active case count to 668 and helped push the province’s five-day test positivity rate to three per cent.
The number of deaths linked to COVID-19 reported on the site remained at 1,211 Wednesday.
Despite making up 15 per cent of Manitoba’s total population, the Southern Health region again saw the largest numbers — 44 infections — Wednesday.
Of the other new cases, 25 came from the Winnipeg Health region, 21 were found in the Northern Health region, 16 were reported in the Prairie Mountain region, and eight were reported in the Interlake Health region.
Earlier this week health officials said COVID-19 is disproportionately hitting the southern health district — where vaccination rates are among the lowest in Manitoba — as the province moves into a fourth wave of the pandemic.
Provincewide, 84.9 per cent of eligible Manitobans have received one shot of vaccine and 80.4 per cent have received two shots.
But rates of vaccine uptake are lower in parts of the south, including 41.3 per cent in Winkler and less than 25 per cent in the surrounding Rural Municipality of Stanley.
Of Manitoba’s active cases, 205 are from the southern health district, as are 33 of the province’s 86 hospitalizations due to the virus.
In all, 20 patients are in ICU due to COVID-19 across the province and 10 of those are from the Southern Health region, health data shows.
Health officials say 73 per cent of Manitobans in hospital due to COVID-19 are not fully vaccinated, and none of the ICU patients had received two doses of vaccine.
Meanwhile, a provincial site tracking variants of concern shows 281 of Manitoba’s active cases involve the more contagious variants.
Data on the site shows Manitoba currently has seven active Alpha cases, 10 active Delta infections, and 264 active variant infections which have yet to be specified.
Since March 2020, Manitoba has now reported 60,443 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.