WINNIPEG -- Six more Manitobans have died from COVID-19, according to the province’s latest update released on Wednesday.

The death toll from COVID-19 in Manitoba is now 788 since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, though health officials said one previously reported death was removed from the total due to a data correction.

Five of the six deaths on Wednesday are in the Winnipeg health region, including a man in his 50s and a woman in her 60s not linked to any current outbreaks.

Three of the deaths are linked to outbreaks at personal care homes, including a woman in her 60s and a man in his 60s both linked to the Southeast Personal Care Home outbreak, and a woman in her 90s whose death has been linked to the outbreak at the Holy Family Personal Care Home.

The sixth death is a woman in her 90s from the Prairie Mountain Health Region, linked to the outbreak at the McCreary/Alonsa Health Centre.

Manitoba also announced 154 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, bringing the provincial five-day test positivity rate to 9.5 per cent. The total number of lab-confirmed cases in Manitoba is 27,893. However, one case was removed from the total due to a data correction.

The Northern Health Region once again saw the majority of the cases, with 70 new cases reported. The region is the hardest hit by the pandemic in Manitoba currently, with 1,502 active cases.

The Winnipeg region reported 48 new cases on Wednesday. This brings the city's total number of active cases to 906, and its five-day test positivity rate to 6.7 per cent.

"We still see higher activity in certain areas (in Winnipeg) where homeless individuals are staying or located," Dr. Jazz Atwal, the acting deputy chief provincial public health officer, said on Wednesday.

Atwal was not able to provide the specific number of COVID-19 cases among Winnipeg's homeless population but said the province has been looking at specific responses to address the pandemic among the most vulnerable.

The other cases reported on Wednesday include:

  • 18 cases in the Interlake-Eastern health region;
  • eight cases in the Prairie Mountain Health region; and
  • 10 cases in the Southern Health–Santé Sud health region.

There are currently 3,137 active cases in Manitoba, while 23,968 people have recovered from COVID-19.

The province said 273 people are in hospital with COVID-19, including 129 who have active cases and 144 people who have COVID-19 but are no longer infectious. There are 36 people in intensive care with COVID-19, including 25 people who have active cases and 11 people who are no longer infectious but still need critical care.

There were 1,911 tests completed on Tuesday, bringing the total number of tests done since early February 2020 to 456,861.

The province declared an outbreak at Deer Lodge, Lodge 2 west in Winnipeg, and has moved the site to critical or red on the pandemic response system.

The outbreaks at the Fred Douglas Lodge in Winnipeg and the Grandview Personal Care Home in Grandview have been declared over.