Winnipeg man in his 30s among 5 COVID-19 deaths reported in Manitoba

A Winnipeg man in his 30s and two seniors linked to an outbreak at care home in Gladstone are among the latest Manitobans to die from COVID-19, as the province reported five more deaths from COVID-19 and 179 new cases Thursday.

New outbreaks have now been declared at two additional care homes — Amber Meadow, a retirement home in Winnipeg, and Arborg Personal Care Home in Arborg.

Both facilities have been moved to the red, or critical, level on the provincial pandemic response system.

The latest deaths and more than half of the new cases announced Thursday come from two health regions — Winnipeg and Southern Health.

The Winnipeg health region had three deaths and 43 cases. Southern Health had two deaths and 69 cases, an update from the province said.

The Northern Health Region has 32 of the latest cases, Prairie Mountain Health region has 28 and the Interlake-Eastern health region has seven.

In addition to the man in his 30s, the latest deaths in the Winnipeg health region were a woman in her 70s and a man in his 70s. The last is linked to the B.1.617.2, or delta, variant of concern.

The deaths in the Southern Health region were a woman and man, both in their 80s and both linked to the outbreak at Gladstone's Third Crossing Manor.

The province also released specifics about deaths reported earlier this week.

A woman in her 90s from Prairie Mountain Health, whose death was reported Tuesday, was linked to an unspecified variant of concern and the outbreak at the Benito Personal Care Home.

A man in his 60s from Southern Health and a man in his 70s from Prairie Mountain Health were the deaths listed in Wednesday dashboard numbers.

Manitoba's total number of deaths linked to COVID-19 is now 1,281. That includes 259 linked to more contagious coronavirus strains.

Of Thursday's 179 cases, 102 are in people who were not fully vaccinated — 94 not at all and eight who were partly vaccinated. There were 77 cases in fully vaccinated people.

There are 157 COVID-19 patients in Manitoba hospitals, up from 152 on Wednesday. Of those, 30 are in intensive care units, which is unchanged from Tuesday.

Among people hospitalized with active cases of COVID-19, 51 per cent are unvaccinated, and 42 per cent are fully vaccinated.

As for patients in intensive care units with active COVID-19, 79 per cent are not vaccinated and 21 per cent are fully vaccinated.

The five-day COVID-19 test positivity rate for Manitoba is 5.4 per cent, a dip from 5.7 on Wednesday. The rate is 2.9 per cent in Winnipeg, which is also a slight decline from the last reported number, 3.1, on Monday.

The highest test positivity rate still belongs to the Southern Health region at 14.4 per cent, according to the province's regional data, which is updated every two weeks.

The Northern Health Region is at 10 per cent, the Prairie Mountain Health region is 6.5 and the Interlake-Eastern health region is 5.7.

Outbreaks

In addition to the outbreaks at Amber Meadow and Arborg Personal Care Home, the province announced new outbreaks in a Grade 4-5 class at New Era School in Brandon and a Grade 2 class at École Sacré-Coeur in Winnipeg.

Those classes have been moved to remote learning and the schools moved to the orange, or restricted, level on the pandemic response system.

Meanwhile, previously announced outbreaks are now over at several Winnipeg schools: Westdale School (Grade 6 class), École Lacerte (kindergarten), Ralph Maybank School (grades 3-4) and Edmund Partridge School (Grade 6).

The outbreak in the GD2 surgery unit at Health Sciences Centre is also over.

The province on Thursday also identified 55 more cases of variants of concern on its online variant dashboard.

All remain unspecified, which means they have not been classified yet as a particular variant. There have been 22,491 variants of concern identified in Manitoba since the pandemic began.

There are 1,404 active COVID-19 cases in the province, of which 507 were caused by coronavirus variants.

School cases

There have now been 1,204 COVID-19 cases in school-age children and school staff since classes started in September, which is an increase of 56 since the last update on Tuesday.

Of those, 1,037 are student cases and 167 are staff. A total of 292 schools have reported at least one case this school year.

Within the last 14 days, the period in which cases are considered active, there have been 429 cases: 377 student cases and 52 staff cases across 160 schools. 

A map showing school-associated cases within the last 14 days can be seen here.

Enforcement update

As part of its enforcement efforts on public health orders, the province handed out 38 warnings and nine tickets during the week of Nov. 8-14.

Six fines of $1,296 each were given to individuals for various violations, while two fines of $298 were issued for failing to wear a mask in an indoor public place.

One fine of $5,000 was given to a business — the Pembina Hotel in Winnipeg.