Manitoba

100 new COVID-19 cases, 1 more death in Manitoba reported Saturday

Manitoba announced 100 new COVID-19 cases and one death linked to the illness on Saturday.

Highest proportion of new cases in Winnipeg, though region's test positivity rate dropped slightly

A health-care worker swabs someone at a drive-thru COVID-19 test site in this file photo. Manitoba has completed more than 497,000 of the swabs since February 2020. (Brittany Murray/The Orange County Register/The Associated Press)

Manitoba announced 100 new COVID-19 cases and the death of a Winnipeg man in his 80s linked to the illness on Saturday.

Nearly half the new cases — 44 — are in the Winnipeg health region, the province says in a news release. 

There are also 39 new cases in the Northern Health Region, 12 in the Southern Health region, three in the Prairie Mountain Health region and two in the Interlake-Eastern health region, the release says.

Manitoba's five-day test positivity rate rose slightly to five per cent on Saturday, up from 4.8 per cent, while Winnipeg's fell from 3.9 per cent to 3.8.

A COVID-19 outbreak has been declared at Selkirk's Red River Place Personal Care Home, the release says.

There are now 230 COVID-19 patients in hospital in Manitoba, down by 10 from Friday, with 28 of those people in intensive care, down by one.

One previously announced case of COVID-19 and one death linked to the illness were removed from Manitoba's totals because of data corrections, the province said Saturday. 

That means Manitoba's death toll linked to the coronavirus remains 866, while the total number of cases detected in the province is now 30,687. 

To date, 28,193 of those people are considered to have recovered, while 1,628 cases are still deemed active — though health officials have said that number may be inflated by a data entry backlog.

On Friday, 1,560 more COVID-19 tests were done in Manitoba, bringing Manitoba's total number of swabs completed since last February to 499,259.

Some COVID-19 test sites will have reduced hours for Louis Riel Day on Monday. Hours of operation for each location are available on the province's website.

Monday's regularly scheduled news bulletin and media briefing will also be pushed forward to Tuesday, the province says.