WINNIPEG -- The Province of Manitoba has recorded its lowest daily COVID-19 case count since mid-April, with 124 COVID-19 cases on Monday.

The Winnipeg region reported 80 cases on Monday, with a five-day test positivity rate of 10.2 per cent. The region has a total of 1,989 active cases.

The other cases reported on Monday include:

  • 19 cases in the Southern Health region, which has 331 active cases;
  • 14 cases in the Northern health region, which has 280 active cases;
  • Seven cases in the Prairie Mountain Health region, which has 232 active cases; and
  • Four cases in the Interlake-Eastern health region, which has 279 active cases.

The new cases bring Manitoba's total number of cases to 54,481, including 3,111 active cases and 50,268 recoveries.

The province has a five-day test positivity rate of 10.7 per cent.

This is the lowest daily case count since April 19, when 108 cases were reported in a single day.

 

"Our case numbers are heading in the right direction – our vaccination rates are climbing," said Dr. Brent Roussin, the chief provincial public health officer.

He said the low cases are a sign the restrictions that are in place across the province are working. He said despite the lowering COVID-19 cases, the health-care system is still feeling the impact.

"We continue to see deaths related to this virus, we continue to see that strain on our health-care system – hospital admissions, especially ICU."

Roussin reported two more deaths on Monday including a man in his 80s from the Southern Health region, and a woman in her 50s from Winnipeg whose death has been linked to the B.1.1.7 variant of concern.

 

This brings the total number of people who have died with COVID-19 in Manitoba to 1,102. The province said one death reported over the weekend was removed due to a data correction.

The province said 26 Manitoba ICU patients are receiving out-of-province care, with 25 in Ontario and one in Alberta. No other COVID-19 patients were taken out of the province on Sunday.

There have been 26 patients returned to Manitoba hospitals.

Within the province, health officials said there are 271 people with COVID-19 in hospital, including 60 patients in intensive care as of Monday. Most of the patients hospitalized have active cases.

"As these case numbers are declining, we are going to anticipate declining numbers in hospitalizations and ICU," Roussin said.

 

He said in the past few days the number of patients in ICU has stabilized, but is still at an extremely high number.

"Our data is showing that the vast majority of people being admitted to ICU are unvaccinated," Roussin said. "Not trying to cast any blame on people – there is lots of reasons why someone may not have been vaccinated as of yet."

Roussin said this shows the benefit of getting a vaccine, adding public health is not really seeing any vaccinated Manitobans admitted into the ICU.

On Monday, the province expanded eligibility for second-dose appointments for the COVID-19 vaccine.

READ MORE: Manitoba updates second-dose COVID-19 vaccine eligibility

The province said 1,667 laboratory tests were completed on Sunday. This brings the total number tests done since early February 2020 to 803,597.