More than 250 Manitobans in hospital with COVID-19, 1,790 cases reported Wednesday

WINNIPEG -

More than 250 Manitobans are in hospital with COVID-19 as the province reported 1,790 new cases of the virus on Wednesday.

As of Wednesday, the province said 252 people are in hospital with COVID-19. Of these cases, 211 people have active cases. There are 30 patients with COVID-19 in the intensive care unit, including 29 people with active cases.

Of the new 1,790 new cases reported on Wednesday, the province said 279 people were not fully vaccinated. The province has said the number of daily cases may be larger than reported, due to the increased wait times for COVID-19 tests and test results in the province.

Of the new cases, 1,320 of them were reported in Winnipeg, including 191 cases among people who were not fully vaccinated. The city has a five-day test positivity rate of 48 per cent.

Dr. Jazz Atwal, the deputy chief provincial public health officer, would not say if new health orders are on the way or if Winnipeg or any other areas of the province will be placed into Code Red.

"We aren't here to speculate on orders. When things are finalized we will provide that to the public," he said.

Atwal said the current health orders are set to expire next week on Jan. 11. 

The other cases reported on Wednesday include:

• 190 cases (31 not fully vaccinated) in the Southern Health region;
• 80 cases (18 not fully vaccinated) in the Prairie Mountain Health region;
• 84 cases (19 not fully vaccinated) in the Northern health region; and
• 116 cases (20 not fully vaccinated) in the Interlake-Eastern health region.

The new cases announced on Wednesday bring Manitoba's total number of cases to 89,050, which includes 18,844 active cases and 68,804 recoveries. Two cases have been removed from the total due to a data correction. The province has previously said the total number of active cases may be smaller than reported due to a backlog in reporting.

The provincial five-day test positivity rate is now 40.3 per cent. The province completed 4,822 laboratory tests on Tuesday.

Two more deaths were reported on Wednesday, including a woman in her 60s from the Northern health region and a man in his 70s from Winnipeg. Both deaths were linked to unspecified variants of concern. These recent deaths bring the total number of people who have died in Manitoba with COVID-19 to 1,402.

The deaths reported previously this week and over the weekend include five deaths reported on Saturday. The deaths include a woman in her 80s from Winnipeg and four men (two from Southern Health, one from the Prairie Mountain Health Region, and one from Winnipeg) all in their 70s.

The death of a Winnipeg man in his 60s was reported on Monday, and the deaths of a woman in her 80s from the Southern Health region and a woman in her 90s from Winnipeg were reported on Tuesday.