Manitoba records more than 2,100 new cases since Friday, eight new deaths

It was a Christmas weekend full of COVID-19 cases as health officials announced more than 2,100 new cases since Friday.

The province said 2,154 cases have been recorded over the three-day period: 785 on Saturday, 694 on Sunday and 675 on Monday.

Of the new cases, 1,463 were from the Winnipeg Health Region, 240 from the Southern Health Region, 229 in Prairie Mountain Health, the Interlake-Eastern Health Region had 176 cases and 46 were found in the Northern Health Region.

Manitoba’s five-day test positivity rate climbed to 19 per cent while in Winnipeg it sits at 21.2 per cent.

Dr. Brent Roussin, the chief provincial public health officer, said officials need to be ready for all circumstances when it comes to Omicron.

“We know Omicron is highly transmissible, it’s difficult to predict the exact impact Omicron will have on our health-care system but we know we need to be prepared for that. We know we can’t rely on some of the reports of Omicron being less severe,” said Roussin.

“We know with the amount of transmission we’re seeing, we’re going to see that translating into increased demand on the healthcare system.”

The province said around 75 per cent of all COVID-19 cases in Manitoba are suspected to be the Omicron variant. This means the province will no longer be providing details about Omicron cases in the bulletins.

EIGHT NEW DEATHS

Officials also announced eight new deaths, bringing the death toll to 1,378.

Three of the deaths happened on Saturday – a woman in her 90s in Prairie Mountain Health, a man in his 20s from Southern Health and a man in his 50s from Southern Health. The woman in her 90s and the man in his 20s were both linked to an unspecified variant.

On Sunday, the deaths included a woman in her 60s from Southern Health and a man in his 30s from Winnipeg.

The last three deaths occurred Monday – all from Southern Health – and included a man in his 30s, a man in his 40s and a man in his 60s.

Manitoba currently has 5,724 active cases, and 68,615 people have recovered.

Looking at hospitals numbers, there are 158 people requiring care due to COVID, include 114 who are still infectious.

There are also 25 people in the ICU, 20 of which have active COVID.

Over the last six weeks, 186 hospitalizations have been people who are not vaccinated, 20 have one dose, 142 have been given two doses and 13 have had three shots.

In the ICU, the majority have been unvaccinated people with 70, 11 have two doses, while two have one shot and two others have had three doses.

COVID-19 OUTBREAK DECLARED

Officials also announced one outbreak has been declared.

It is at Lodge 5 West at Deer Lodge Centre in Winnipeg.