WINNIPEG -- One Manitoban has died related to COVID-19, as the province's trend of daily cases falling below 100 continues.

In a bulletin on Thursday, the province reported a man in his 70s from Winnipeg had died from COVID-19. This brings the total number of deaths related to the virus to 888.

 

The province also announced 70 new cases as of Thursday morning. Daily COVID-19 cases have remained under 100 since Feb. 18.

The new cases bring the total number of lab-confirmed cases Manitoba has seen in the pandemic to 31,657. Three cases have been removed from the total due to a data correction.

The new cases include:

  • seven cases in Interlake–Eastern health region;
  • 30 cases in the Northern health region;
  • two cases in the Southern Health–Santé Sud health region; and
  • 31 cases in the Winnipeg health region.

There were no cases reported in the Prairie Mountain Health region on Thursday.

 

No new variants of concern were reported on Thursday, leaving the total number of B.1.1.7. variant cases in Manitoba at five.

Manitoba's five-day test positivity rate dropped to 4.3 per cent, down from 4.6 per cent on Wednesday. In Winnipeg, the rate dropped to 3.8 per cent, down from four per cent on Wednesday.

Hospitalizations dropped on Thursday as well, with 196 people in hospital with COVID-19 on Thursday – down from the 207 COVID-19 patients in hospital the day prior.

Of the people in hospital with COVID-19 on Thursday, there were 75 people who had active cases, the rest were no longer infectious but still required care. There were 26 people in intensive care with COVID-19 on Thursday, including 16 people who are no longer infectious but still needed the critical care.

The province said 29,563 people have recovered from COVID-19 in Manitoba. There are 1,206 cases currently reported to be active.

 

There were 2,290 tests completed on Wednesday, bringing the total number of tests done since early February 2020 to 519,892.