12 more COVID-related deaths in latest Manitoba Health report
16 people admitted to ICU
Hospitalizations due to COVID-19 in Manitoba decreased slightly in the latest Manitoba Health surveillance report, but remain much higher than in early October.
From Oct. 16 to 22, 100 people were hospitalized with COVID-19, down from 103 the previous week, the province's latest weekly surveillance report said Thursday.
There were 73 people hospitalized with COVID-19 in the first week of October.
There were 16 more people admitted to intensive care units, which is a slight increase from the previous week, which saw 14 ICU admissions.
There were a total of 90 adults in Manitoba intensive care units on Wednesday night, including patients who did not have COVID-19, Shared Health said.
The number of COVID-related deaths since the beginning of the pandemic increased by 12, raising the number of Manitobans killed by the virus to 2,211.
There were 362 lab-confirmed cases in Manitoba during the most recent reporting week. That's believed to be a significant undercount of the true number of infections, due to limited access to polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, the only type of test recorded by Manitoba Public Health.
There was a daily average of 297 PCR tests done and the weekly test positivity rate went down to 24 per cent from 29.6 per cent.
Wastewater data
Wastewater data gathered by the federal government shows a steady increase of viral load at two of the three Winnipeg treatment plants.
The seven-day rolling average of the COVID-19 viral load has more than tripled at the city's South End Sewage Treatment Plant since Oct. 1. The West End Sewage Treatment Plant's seven-day average almost tripled since the beginning of the month.
At the North End Sewage Treatment Plant, the viral load peaked on Oct. 20 and declined in the most recent report.
Data from the Brandon treatment plant shows a peak in viral load in the second week of September, and the seven-day average has remained relatively stable after a significant decrease on Sept. 20.
The province's next COVID-19 surveillance report is scheduled for Nov. 3.