110 new COVID-19 cases, 2 deaths in Manitoba on Thursday

There are 110 new COVID-19 cases in Manitoba on Thursday and two more people have died from the illness, the province says in a news release.

Manitoba's five-day test positivity rate is down slightly to 6.7 per cent, the lowest it's been since Oct. 23. Winnipeg's is down to 3.6 per cent, the release says.

The deaths announced Thursday are a man in his 70s and a woman in her 90s, both from the Winnipeg health region. The woman is linked to the COVID-19 outbreak at the Southeast Personal Care Home, the release says.

Just over one-third of the new cases (39) are in the Northern Health Region, while 33 are in the Interlake-Eastern health region, the release says. The remaining new cases are spread out among the Winnipeg health region (26), the Prairie Mountain Health region (seven) and the Southern Health region (five).

The latest deaths bring Manitoba's total to 837.

The province has a new tool that will provide information about COVID-19 cases in public and independent schools, the release says. That dashboard, which will be updated twice weekly, is available on the province's website.

There are now 264 COVID-19 patients in hospital in Manitoba, an increase of four from the previous day, with 36 of those people in intensive care, which is two more than on Wednesday.

Previously declared outbreaks are now over at Brandon's Fairview Personal Care Home and Winnipeg's Seven Oaks General Hospital 5U1-3 unit, the release says.

There have now been 29,968 COVID-19 cases detected in Manitoba, including 25,791 people who have been deemed recovered, the release says. There are 3,340 cases still considered active, though health officials have said that number is inflated by a data entry backlog.

There were 2,183 COVID-19 tests done in Manitoba on Wednesday, which brings Manitoba's total to 484,302 swabs completed since February 2020.