Record-breaking 15 COVID-19 deaths reported in Manitoba, including 11 at Maples care home

Fifteen more people with COVID-19 have died in Manitoba, including 11 at a Winnipeg care home that has become the site of the province's deadliest outbreak of the illness.

The Maples Long Term Care Home residents whose deaths were announced Saturday are four men (three in their 80s and one in his 90s) and seven women (one in her 60s, one in her 70s, two in their 80s and three in their 90s), the province said in its daily news release Saturday.

The home became the focus of an independent investigation after the situation there accelerated so rapidly one evening last week that several ambulances and paramedics were called to care for a dozen residents. As of Friday, 32 residents there had died during the outbreak, according to Revera, the for-profit company that runs the site.

The province's latest update marks Manitoba's largest jump in fatalities reported on a single day since the beginning of the pandemic, and brings Manitoba's coronavirus-linked death toll to 152.

The 15 deaths announced Saturday happened between Nov. 2 and 13, but some were only announced now because of a lag in data entry, a provincial spokesperson said.

They also include a man in his 80s linked to the outbreak at St. Boniface Hospital in Winnipeg, and three other men — two in their 70s and one in his 80s — from the Southern Health region.

The province also announced 239 new cases of COVID-19 Saturday. That update marks a significant drop from the number of new cases announced in recent days, and is the first time in a week the province has reported fewer than 300 new cases.

The 239 announced Saturday is the lowest one-day increase reported since Nov. 3, when there were 103 new cases.

Manitoba's five-day test positivity rate, a rolling average of the COVID-19 tests that come back positive, is now 12.4 per cent. In Winnipeg, that rate is 13.1 per cent, the release says.

There are now 228 people hospitalized with COVID-19 in Manitoba, including 34 in intensive care.

The province also announced several new outbreaks across Manitoba, including some in care homes, one in a prison and one in a hospital unit. The following sites have been moved to the red, or critical, level of the province's pandemic response system:

• Winnipeg's Victoria General Hospital in Unit 4 South.
• Stony Mountain Institution.
• Grunthal's Menno Home.
• Winkler's Salem Home.
• Vita and District Personal Care Home.
• Opaskwayak Cree Nation's Rod McGillivary Memorial Care Home.

A Winnipeg Regional Health Authority spokesperson said Saturday that an outbreak at Golden Links Lodge, announced earlier this week, had affected 26 residents and six staff at the care home in Winnipeg's St. Vital area.

That number will likely increase as more test results come in, the spokesperson said in an email.

The outbreak, which was declared on Nov. 11 and announced by the province Friday, is being managed with on-site resources, the WRHA spokesperson said.

But contingency plans, such as extra equipment and access to a rapid response care team, are in place should they be needed, and the WRHA is trying to find extra personnel to send to the care home, "as staffing is very challenged."

163 cases in Winnipeg

Most of the province's new cases continue to be in the Winnipeg health region, with 163 on Saturday in the capital city. Another 40 of the new cases announced were in the Southern Health region, 16 were in Northern Health, 11 were in the Interlake-Eastern Health region and nine were in Prairie Mountain Health.

The latest possible COVID-19 exposures are listed by region on the province's website.

Two cases were also removed from Manitoba's totals, the release says; one was later determined to be from outside the province and one was the result of a data correction.

That brings the total number of cases identified in the province to 10,453. Of those, 3,891 people are considered recovered while 6,410 are listed as active — though Chief Provincial Public Health Officer Dr. Brent Roussin has said that number is skewed because of a data entry backlog, and as of Thursday was likely closer to 3,163.

On Friday, 2,971 more COVID-19 tests were done in Manitoba, bringing the total number completed in the province since early February to 307,056.