Manitoba reports 247 COVID-19 cases, 1 death since Friday

Another Manitoban with COVID-19 has died and officials say 247 more infections have been reported in the last three days.

The latest death reported Monday is a woman in her 50s from the Prairie Mountain Health region linked to an unspecified variant of concern.

The new cases include 51 infections reported Monday, 88 cases identified Sunday, and 108 cases reported Saturday.

According to the province, 36 of Manitoba’s latest infections are among people who were not fully vaccinated.

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The Southern Health region continues to see the highest numbers of new cases. According to provincial data, of the 339 cases reported since Thursday, 128 came from the southern district.

Over that time span 81 cases come from the Winnipeg Health region, 56 were found in the Prairie Mountain Health region, 53 were reported in the Northern Health region and 21 were found in the Interlake-Eastern Health region.

Manitoba now has 976 active cases of COVID-19 and the five-day test positivity rate is 3.3 per cent provincially.

There were 90 hospitalizations due to COVID-19 reported as of Monday morning and 16 patients in intensive care units as a result of the virus.

A new school outbreak has been declared at St. Augustine’s School in Brandon, officials announced Monday. One class at the school has been moved to remote learning and moved to orange, or restricted, on the province’s pandemic response system.

A previously declared outbreak at Miniota School in Miniota has ended, officials added.

Health data shows 2,010 lab tests for COVID-19 were performed Sunday.

A provincial site tracking vaccination efforts shows 86.2 per cent of eligible Manitobans have received one shot of vaccine and 82.6 have received two doses. According to the site, 974 vaccinations were scheduled on Monday.

Since March 2020, Manitoba has reported 62,230 lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases and 1,231 deaths linked to the virus.

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.