Manitoba reports no deaths, 53 cases of COVID-19

Manitoba announced 53 more cases of COVID-19 and no new deaths Wednesday, only the eighth time since the beginning of May that zero deaths have been reported.

There are 129 people in hospital, down two from Tuesday, including 31 patients in intensive care, the province's COVID-19 dashboard says.

The provincial test positivity rate is down to four per cent, with the rate in Winnipeg now at 3.8 per cent — the lowest for either in over three months.

The provincial rate hasn't been this low since the beginning of April, and Winnipeg's rate hasn't been this low since the end of March.

The news comes as all Manitoba vaccine supersites do only walk-ins Wednesday in an attempt to increase access and boost vaccine rates.

The total number of cases linked to variants of concern increased by three to 16,081 since Tuesday.

The bulk of identified variant cases continue to be B.1.1.7, the alpha variant that was first detected in the U.K., with 7,046. The highly contagious B.1.617.2, initially found in India, has been increasing in number but remains at 397 for the second day in a row.

Unspecified variants make up more than half of variant cases in Manitoba at 8,315.

Manitoba did 1,549 COVID-19 tests Tuesday, the most in a week.

The seven-day average for cases dipped to just under 60, the first time it's been that low since early March. One day in early April the average appeared to be below 60, but that was an anomaly as it was on a day when the province didn't release daily case numbers.

Most of the cases — 31 — were in Winnipeg, followed by the Southern Health region with 11, Interlake-Eastern health region with 10 and Prairie Mountain Health with one. No new cases were reported in the Northern Health Region.

So far, 1,163 people have died of the illness in the province.