WINNIPEG -- The province has announced 11 more people have died of COVID-19 in Manitoba – the highest single-day spike in deaths since the pandemic first hit the province.

On Wednesday, Dr. Brent Roussin announced the most recent deaths caused by the virus, which include:

  • A woman in her 50s from the Southern Health–Santé Sud health region;
  • Two men in their 80s from the Southern Health–Santé Sud health region;
  • A man in his 60s from the Winnipeg health region;
  • Two men in their 70s from the Interlake–Eastern health region;
  • Two men in their 80s, and a woman in her 90s from the Winnipeg health region and linked to the outbreak at the Golden Links Lodge;
  • A woman in her 80s from the Prairie Mountain Health region; and
  • A man in his 90s from the Winnipeg health region.

Since March, 190 Manitobans have died due to COVID-19. Wednesday saw the highest single-day spike of COVID-19 deaths. The province previously reported 15 deaths on Saturday, but the deaths occurred throughout the previous week due to a backlog in reporting.

Roussin said the province has recently been reporting new deaths every single day and said Manitobans need to step up to stop the surge.

“Really the message is clear, and that is to stay home,” Roussin said. “We need to get on top of this virus in the next couple weeks, and the best way to accomplish that is to just stay home, leaving only for essential reasons.”

The province also announced 400 new cases as of Wednesday, though one case was removed from the total as it was a duplicate.

More than half of these cases are in the Winnipeg region which reported 239 new cases, bringing the five-day test positivity rate in the city to 13.8 per cent.

The other cases include:

  • 20 cases in the Interlake-Eastern health region;
  • 40 cases in the Northern health region;
  • eight cases in the Prairie Mountain Health region; and
  • 93 cases in the Southern Health–Santé Sud health region.

Manitoba also saw the highest five-day test positivity rate yet on Wednesday, as it reached 14.2 per cent. This rate has been steadily increasing in Manitoba for more than a week.

There are 249 people in hospital with COVID-19, including 40 people in intensive care.

Lanette Siragusa said there are now 102 critical care beds across Manitoba, 88 of which are currently being used. She said 50 per cent of the people in intensive care are now COVID-positive.

The province announced 108 more people have recovered from COVID-19, bringing the total number of recoveries to 4,432. There are more than 7,300 active cases of COVID-19 in Manitoba as of Wednesday.

Since March, there have been 12,007 total cases of COVID-19 in Manitoba.

The province said there were 3,050 tests completed on Tuesday, bringing the total number of tests done since early February to 318,479.