COVID-19 hospitalizations near 500 in Manitoba, nine more deaths on Thursday

The number of people in hospital with COVID-19 continues to rise in Manitoba, nearing 500 on Thursday.

According to the provincial COVID-19 dashboard, 499 people are in hospital with the virus as of Thursday – a jump of 45 hospitalizations since Wednesday. Of those people, 463 have active cases. The number of people in the intensive care unit with COVID-19 increased by one on Thursday to 47; all but two patients have active cases.

The majority of the hospitalizations are in the Winnipeg health region, which as of Thursday had 313 people in hospital and 30 people in the ICU with the virus.

The Southern Health-Santé Sud region has 63 people in hospital and eight people in the ICU with COVID-19.

The Prairie Mountain Health region has 58 COVID-19 patients in hospital and five in ICU.

The Northern Health region has 30 COVID-19 patients in hospital and none in the intensive care unit.

The Interlake-Eastern Health region has 35 people in hospital with COVID-19, and four in the ICU.

The province also reported nine new deaths on Thursday, bringing the total number of people who have died with COVID-19 in Manitoba to 1,438. No details were provided on these deaths.

There were 1,228 new cases reported on Thursday, though Manitoba's health minister has previously said COVID-19 cases are substantially under-reported.

The new cases bring Manitoba's total to 106,627 cases, including 36,087 active cases and 69,102 recoveries.

READ MORE: Why Manitoba does not report daily COVID-19 cases by vaccination status anymore

The province said it has administered more than 2.6 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine as of Thursday; this includes 84.6 per cent of eligible Manitobans who have received at least one dose, 78.1 per cent who rolled up their sleeve for a second dose, and 32.6 per cent who received their booster shot.

As of Thursday, the province has a five-day test positivity rate of 44.9 per cent – a drop from 47.2 per cent on Wednesday. The province completed 2,965 laboratory tests on Wednesday.

The province previously announced it is shifting its pandemic response away from trying to contain the virus. It will now focus on trying to mitigate the impact of COVID-19.

During a news conference on Wednesday, Dr. Jazz Atwal, the deputy chief provincial public health officer, said it is 'highly likely' everyone will be exposed to the virus in the coming weeks.