There are 51 new cases of COVID-19 in Manitoba on Sunday, the province says in a news release, including 36 in the Winnipeg health region.

Another eight new cases are in the Interlake-Eastern Health region, and four are in the Southern Health region, the release says. Two new cases are in the Northern Health region and the remaining one is in the Prairie Mountain Health region.

More information will be released about the new cases if a risk to public health is identified.

Two more people with COVID-19 are connected to schools in Winnipeg — Sisler High School and St. Maurice School.

A person who may have been infectious was in Sisler, on Redwood Avenue, on Sept. 18. The risk to the public is believed to be low, according to a letter to parents.

Meanwhile, a confirmed COVID-19 case was in St. Maurice School in Fort Garry on Sept. 17 and 18, according to a letter to parents.

Close contacts of the case are being notified directly and must self-isolate.

There are 13 people hospitalized with COVID-19 in the province, the release says, including six in intensive care.

Five of those people, or a little over one-third, are attributed the Winnipeg health region, according to provincial data. Two of those people are in intensive care.

There are three people hospitalized with the illness are linked to the Prairie Mountain Health region (with two in intensive care) and three are attributed to the Southern Health region (with one in intensive care).

There is one person hospitalized with COVID-19 from the Northern Health region, and one person from the Interlake-Eastern health region is in intensive care.

Manitoba's five-day test positivity rate — a rolling average of the proportion of COVID-19 tests that come back positive — is down slightly to 2.2 per cent, the release says.

There are now 589 active cases of the illness in Manitoba, including 490 — or 83 per cent — in the Winnipeg health region, according to provincial data.

There have been 1,880 cases of COVID-19 detected in Manitoba, the release says; 1,272 have recovered and 19 have died.

Manitoba Families will give out more than 227,000 reusable masks to its clients, the release says. That will come out to two per every adult in a household, and for kids aged five to nine. Older kids will instead get masks through their school or child-care provider, the release says.

That distribution will start in Winnipeg and continue across Manitoba in the coming weeks.

Starting Monday, people in Winnipeg and 17 surrounding communities will have to wear masks in all public indoor spaces and cap gatherings at 10 as the region moves to the orange — or "restricted" — level under the province's pandemic response system.

The new rules will stay for at least four weeks, Manitoba's top doctor said, which is roughly two incubation periods of the illness.

That timeframe, announced by Chief Provincial Public Health Officer Dr. Brent Roussin on Friday, includes Thanksgiving. The holiday falls on Oct. 12 this year.

The province is still working to increase capacity and reduce wait times at sites in Winnipeg as demand for COVID-19 testing spiked in response to increasing cases in the region.

On Saturday, 2,200 COVID-19 tests were done in Manitoba. There have now been 178,067 tests completed in the province since early February, the release says.