5 COVID-19 deaths reported in Manitoba on Thursday as hospitalizations drop 19
'We’re seeing a significant improvement in a number of key areas,' David Matear says
Manitoba reported five COVID-19 deaths on Thursday as hospitalizations fell by 19, the province's online dashboard says.
There are now 524 people in Manitoba hospitals with COVID-19, a drop of more than 100 in the past 10 days.
The hospitalization data includes 32 people in intensive care units, which is an increase of three from Wednesday.
Despite that slight rise, the number of COVID-positive patients in ICUs has declined nearly 16 per cent in the past week, from 38 to 32, said David Matear, health system co-lead with the Unified Health Sector Incident Command.
And since Feb. 1, that number has gone down more than 40 per cent.
"While hospitals remain busy and hundreds of health-care workers continue to be deployed … we're seeing a significant improvement in a number of key areas," Matear said at a Thursday news conference.
Of the latest deaths, there were three in the Winnipeg health region, one in the Prairie Mountain Health region and one in the Northern Health Region.
No information on ages or sex of those who died or about outbreaks was released on Thursday by the province.
The number of people in Manitoba who have died due to COVID-19 since the pandemic started is now 1,668.
The province also reported 319 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, although health officials have repeatedly said those numbers are a significant undercount of the total number of active cases.
Manitoba is strictly restricting access to PCR tests at provincial sites and does not track most rapid test results.
Of the new cases, 107 are in the Northern Health Region, 89 in the Winnipeg health region, 68 in the Prairie Mountain Health region, 30 in the Interlake-Eastern health region, and 25 in the Southern Health region.
A recent breakdown of cases by vaccination status can be viewed on an interactive chart on the government website.
As of midnight, there were 106 adult patients — those receiving both COVID and non-COVID care — in Manitoba ICUs. That's an increase of seven from Wednesday.
The critical care program's normal, pre-COVID baseline capacity was 72 patients.
Manitoba's five-day test-positivity rate decreased to 14 per cent from 14.8 on Wednesday. At the start of the month, it was 30.1 per cent.
As of Thursday, 86.2 per cent of eligible Manitobans have at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, 81.8 per cent have two doses and 43.5 per cent have received their third shot, the provincial vaccine dashboard says.
The total number of doses administered in the province is now 2,828,203, with 239 scheduled to be given on Thursday.
The recent wave of cases caused by the Omicron coronavirus variant, combined with the province's high rate of vaccination, has improved the rate of immunity, Matear said, which has given public health an opportunity to loosen restrictions.
Earlier this week, the province began that with a first phase of loosening visitor restrictions at hospitals and personal care homes. Effective March 1, the province will remove proof of vaccination and testing requirements for designated public sector employees, including education, child-care and health-care workers.
As public health orders loosen, there could be a slight increase in COVID activity and the number of patients, Matear said.
"We know that across the health-care system we're not back to normal and we must maintain our capacity to care for COVID patients," he said, noting the province is monitoring key indicators to help identify what can be expected in the coming weeks.
He urged people to continue getting vaccinated.
"We may be entering a new stage of the pandemic with loosening restrictions, but the health system's message to Manitobans continues to be focused on encouraging [them] to reduce the strain on our workforce by making smart choices," Matear said.
"Vaccines significantly reduce the risk of ending up in our hospitals, which will not just help you but also many others by allowing our health system to return to more normal operations."
WATCH | Full news conference on COVID-19 | February 24, 2022:
