Health officials say another Manitoban with COVID-19 has died and 95 new infections have been identified.
The latest cases reported on the province’s online COVID-19 dashboard Wednesday bring Manitoba’s total number of active infections to 858 and the province’s five-day test positivity rate to 3.6 per cent.
The number of deaths linked to COVID-19 reported on the site climbed one to 1,214 Tuesday.
Details about the latest victim will be provided in the province’s next COVID-19 media release later in the week.
The Southern Health region saw the largest one-day jump in cases, with 29 infections reported Wednesday.
Another 24 cases come from the Winnipeg Health region, 19 were found in the Prairie Mountain Health region, 17 were reported in the Northern Health region, and nine were found in the Interlake-Eastern Health region.
According to provincial data, 72 of Manitoba’s latest infections are among people who had yet to be fully vaccinated.
There were 95 hospitalizations due to COVID-19 reported Wednesday morning and 17 patients in ICU as a result of the virus.
Meanwhile, a provincial site tracking variants of concern shows 329 of Manitoba’s active cases involve the more contagious variants.
Data on the site shows Manitoba currently has three active Alpha cases, 13 active Delta infections, and 313 active variant infections which have yet to be specified.
Since the first variant case was discovered in Manitoba in February, the province has recorded 19,003 cases and 208 deaths have been linked to variants.
In all, Manitoba has reported 61,126 COVID-19 cases since March 2020.
Manitoba hit a vaccination milestone Wednesday, passing two million doses administered.
To date, 2,435,830 doses of vaccine have been delivered to Manitoba and officials say 2,003,159 doses have gone into arms.
A provincial site tracking vaccination efforts shows 85.3 per cent of eligible Manitobans have received one shot of vaccine and 81.3 have received two doses.
According to the site, 2,572 vaccinations were scheduled Wednesday.
Health officials also expanded recommendations for third doses of vaccine Wednesday to include all health-care workers who have direct contact with patients in areas including hospitals, care homes, pharmacies and addictions treatment centres.
It is also allowing anyone who has received only the viral-vector vaccines, such as Oxford-AstraZeneca, to get a third dose with an mRNA vaccine such as Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech.
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.