Hospital numbers once again jump in Manitoba, 19 new COVID-19 deaths since Friday

COVID-19 admissions to hospital saw another climb over the weekend as there are currently 735 people requiring care.

According to the province's dashboard, 633 of those patients have active COVID.

In the ICU there are 56 patients, 47 of which are still infectious.

Despite seeing the climb in hospitalizations, the province said in its COVID-19 bulletin that there was a decrease in overall admissions.

For the week ending Jan. 27, there were 334 new hospitalizations, which was down by 15 per cent compared to the previous week. However, ICU admissions did go up by 2.5 per cent.

There was also a case count drop of 29.2 per cent during that week.

Manitoba also added 19 new deaths since Friday, bringing the total to 1,562.

The deaths include:

• Four on Saturday – a man in his 40s, a man in his 70s and a woman in her 60s from the Prairie Mountain Health Region, as well as a woman in her 70s from Winnipeg;
• Five on Sunday – two men in their 80s and a man in his 50s all from Winnipeg and two men in their 60s from the Interlake-Eastern Health Region both linked to the outbreak at the Tudor House personal care home;
• 10 on Monday – two men in their 80s, three women in their 70s, a man in his 70s and a woman in her 40s, all from Winnipeg, as well as a man and woman in their 70s from the Southern Health Region and a woman in her 80s from the Northern Health Region.

The province said 505 cases of COVID were added on Monday, bringing the active case count to 31,535.

Officials have previously noted that the case count is likely higher as at-home rapid test results are not being recorded.

Manitoba's five-day test positivity rate is 30.4 per cent.

On the vaccine front, 85.6 per cent of eligible Manitobans have received one dose, 79.6 per cent are fully vaccinated with two doses and 40.2 per cent have received a third shot.

The province also noted that 56.3 per cent of children between the ages of five and 11 have received their first dose.