159 new cases of COVID-19, 6 deaths identified in Manitoba over 4 days

There were 159 new COVID-19 cases and six deaths identified in Manitoba over four days, a news release says.

There were 42 new cases on Saturday, 48 on Sunday, 33 on Monday and 36 on Tuesday. 

There were four deaths in the Southern Health region: a woman in her 60s, a man in his 70s who had an unspecified variant of concern, a woman in her 80s, and a man in his 80s who had an unspecified variant of concern.

A man in his 80s from the Prairie Mountain Health region also died, and a man in his 70s from the Interlake-Eastern health region who had an unspecified variant.

There are 19 new cases in the Winnipeg health region (13 not fully vaccinated), 10 in the Southern Health region (none were fully vaccinated), seven cases in the Interlake-Eastern health region (six not fully vaccinated) and no new cases in the Northern or Prairie Mountain health regions.

There are 422 active cases of COVID-19 in the province and 57,380 have recovered. There are 1,198 deaths related to COVID-19, including 196 linked to variants of concern.

Dr. Jazz Atwal, acting deputy chief public health officer, announced a new vaccine dashboard on Tuesday, which will break down information on cases and indicate whether they are fully, partially or unvaccinated. It also includes new and actives cases, hospitalizations and ICU data.

Vaccination data on deaths is not provided on the dashboard as that could compromise patient privacy, he said.

"This new dashboard continues to illustrate the power of vaccinations and that this is now a pandemic of the unvaccinated," Atwal said.

"I urge any of the thousands of Manitobans who have not been immunized to make that appointment today."

Manitoba's five-day test positivity rate is up to 2.7 per cent from 2.4 per cent on Friday, the last day it was reported, a provincial news release says.

In Winnipeg, the rate dipped to 1.4 per cent from 1.5 per cent on Thursday, the last time that data was updated.

Manitoba no longer updates its public COVID-19 data portal on weekends and holidays.

Winkler care home outbreak

There are 74 Manitobans in hospital due to COVID-19, up from 66 on Friday. Of those, 12 are in intensive care, up two. Eleven of those ICU patients were not fully vaccinated prior to admission to hospital, the province says. The remaining patient's vaccine status has not been verified.

Meanwhile, the province has declared an outbreak at Salem Home, a personal care home in Winkler.

In the facility's latest update on Sept. 3, it says two residents in the Cottonwood Care Area have tested positive.

Salem Home says designated caregivers and fully vaccinated people can visit residents, but must wear masks and practice physical distancing.

The province's online variant dashboard on Tuesday said 126 more cases have been linked to more contagious variants, and there are 228 active cases of those variants of concern.

Among the active cases, there are 29 linked to delta or B.1.617.2 variant, 14 linked to alpha or B.1.1.7 variant, and 185 linked to unspecified variants.

A recently released study out of the U.K. suggests that the delta variant contributes to more cases of severe illness compared to the original strain or the alpha variant, says Dr. Joss Reimer, the medical lead of the vaccine implementation taskforce.

However, those who are vaccinated are much less likely to end up in hospital or die after testing positive for the delta or alpha variant than those who are not.

"It really does reinforce that one of the greatest risks we're facing in the pandemic is those people who are unvaccinated, and the risk to them of having those severe outcomes," she said.

Pop-up vaccine clinics successful

As of Tuesday, 82.9 per cent of eligible Manitobans have at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine while 77.9 per cent have received two doses, according to the province's online vaccine dashboard.

More and more doses are being given to people who haven't yet gotten the jab, Reimer says.

Last week, 450 doses were given at different pop up clinics in malls and about 60 were given at The Forks, more than half of which were first doses.

"There have also been many community-led clinics that are helping provide access to the vaccine throughout the province. And each and every dose provided at all of these clinics is so important to protecting all of us against COVID," said Reimer.