WINNIPEG -- Two more COVID-19 deaths have been reported in Manitoba – one of which has been linked to a variant of concern.

On Wednesday, the province reported a man in his 60s and a woman in her 70s – both from Winnipeg – had died from COVID-19. The death of the woman has been linked to the B.1.1.7. variant.

 

This brings the total number of people in Manitoba who have died from COVID-19 to 982. In total, 12 deaths have been linked to variants of concern.

The province also reported 272 new cases of COVID-19 – the majority of which were in Winnipeg, which reported 182 cases on Wednesday. The Winnipeg region has the highest number of active cases in the province, with 1,684 active cases as of Wednesday, and a five-day test positivity rate of 9.2 per cent.

The other cases reported on Wednesday include:

  • 37 cases in the Prairie Mountain Health region, which has 379 active cases;
  • 20 cases in the Interlake-Eastern health region, which has 129 active cases;
  • 20 cases in the Southern Health region, which has 154 active cases; and
  • 13 cases in the Northern health region, which has 434 active cases.

The province's five-day test positivity rate is at 8.8 per cent.

The total number of cases Manitoba has seen in the pandemic is 40,085, which includes 2,780 active cases and 36,323 recoveries. One case was removed from the total due to a data correction.

MORE CASES OF P1 VARIANT FOUND IN MANITOBA

The province reported 84 new variant of concern cases, bringing the total to 2,789. This includes 956 active cases and 1,821 recovered cases.

 

Four more cases of the P1 variant – which was first identified in Brazil – were identified as of Wednesday. In total, the province has seen 15 cases of the P1 variant.

The majority of Manitoba's variant cases are the B.1.1.7. variant – which was first identified in the United Kingdom. There have been 1,822 cases of this variant in Manitoba.

There are 22 cases of the B.1.351 variant – first identified in South Africa, and 930 variant cases are unspecified.

MORE THAN 120 PEOPLE IN HOSPITAL WITH ACTIVE COVID CASES

The province said 184 people are in hospital with the virus including 125 people with active cases and 59 people who are no longer infectious. The number of COVID-19 patients in ICU was at 47 on Wednesday, including 38 who have active COVID-19 and nine who are no longer infectious but still require critical care.

The province said 2,803 laboratory tests were completed on Tuesday, bringing the total number of tests done since early February 2020 to 676,845.