75 new cases of COVID-19 reported in Manitoba Tuesday as coronavirus variant found

Manitoba has 75 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, as the province's chief public health officer announced the arrival of the coronavirus variant first seen in the U.K.

The variant case is related to international travel and the person has since recovered.

Dr. Brent Roussin says there's no evidence of transmission within Manitoba, but there are travel restrictions and quarantine procedures to protect Manitobans from the more contagious variant.

Of the cases reported today, 51 are in the Winnipeg health region. There are 16 new cases in the Northern Health Region, five in the Southern Health region, three in the Interlake-Eastern health region and no new cases in the Prairie Mountain Health region.

This is the fourth day in a row that Manitoba has had double-digit case tallies. On Monday, the province had 53 new cases of COVID-19, the lowest number since Oct. 18. There were 80 new cases on Sunday and 82 on Saturday. 

There were three more deaths announced Tuesday — a man in his 60s from the Prairie Mountain Health region, and two Winnipeg women, one in her 60s, the other in her 70s.

That brings the total number of deaths related to the novel coronavirus to 853.

Hospitalizations are trending downward, with 268 people in hospital due to the virus. The number of people in intensive care is down to 33.

The five-day test positivity rate — a rolling average of the number of tests that come back positive — is down slightly to 5.4 per cent provincially. In Winnipeg, it's up again to 4.3 per cent.

Outbreaks at Beacon Hill Lodge and Charleswood Care Centre in Winnipeg, at Rock Lake Hospital in Crystal City and at Northern Spirit Manor in Thompson are now considered over.

The release says 1,322 tests were done on Monday, bringing the total number of lab tests completed since early February of last year to 492,213.