Two deaths linked to COVID-19 variants, 70 cases reported in Manitoba on Wednesday

WINNIPEG -

Two more deaths have been reported in Manitoba, as public health identified 70 more COVID-19 cases.

The deaths reported on Wednesday include a man in his 30s from the Interlake-Eastern health region linked to an unspecified variant of concern, and a woman in her 60s from Winnipeg linked to the Alpha (B.1.1.7.) variant of concern.

These deaths bring the total number of people who have died with COVID-19 in Manitoba to 1,141. Of these deaths, 149 have been linked to variants of concern.

The province also reported 70 cases on Wednesday, along with a five-day test positivity rate of 6.2 per cent.

Of these cases, 29 were reported in Winnipeg with a five-day test positivity rate of 5.6 per cent. Twenty cases were reported in the Northern Health Region, 12 in the Southern Health region, seven in the Interlake-Eastern region, and two in the Prairie Mountain Health region.

These new cases bring Manitoba's total to 56,167, including 1,395 active cases and 53,631 recoveries.

Hospitalization and ICU numbers continued to drop on Wednesday – with 164 people infected with the virus in hospital, including 46 in intensive care (19 have active cases while 27 are no longer infectious).

Nine Manitoba ICU patients are receiving care in Ontario hospitals. Shared Health confirmed on Tuesday that a woman in her 50s who had been receiving care in Ontario had died.

READ MORE: Manitoba woman dies from COVID-19 while receiving treatment in Ontario

The province said 36 patients who had been receiving out-of-province care have since been returned to Manitoba hospitals. No COVID-19 patients were taken out of the province on Tuesday.

The province completed 1,616 laboratory tests on Tuesday, bringing the total number of tests completed since early February 2020 to 830,897.

This is a developing story. More to come.