WINNIPEG -- Health officials have announced two new deaths and 374 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday in Manitoba.
Dr. Brent Roussin, the chief provincial public health officer, and Lanette Siragusa, the chief nursing officer for Shared Health made the announcement.
The two deaths are both women from the Winnipeg region. One was in her 80s and linked to the Maples personal care home outbreak, the second was in her 90s and linked to the outbreak at St. Boniface Hospital.
The death toll in Manitoba has climbed to 87.
Officials also said the test positivity rate in Manitoba is 8.5 per cent, with Winnipeg’s test positive rate sitting at nine per cent.
The new cases include:
- 12 cases in the Interlake-Eastern health region;
- 14 cases in the Northern health region;
- five cases in the Prairie Mountain Health region;
- 67 cases in the Southern Health–Santé Sud health region; and
- 276 cases in the Winnipeg health region.
There have now been 6,751 cases of COVID-19 since the beginnings of the pandemic in early March.
There are currently 3,772 active cases and 2,892 people have recovered.
Officials noted 140 of those active cases are in hospital and 21 are in intensive care.
On Tuesday, 3,163 tests were performed, bringing the total to 268,504 since early February.
Roussin reiterated a similar message to Manitobans encouraging everyone to lower interactions with people outside of their homes as well as staying home as much as possible.
"The biggest thing that we have to realize is we need Manitobans on board for this and the vast majority have been on board right from the beginning. But to really come through, as a province to step up we need Manitobans to step up," said Roussin.
"It's very difficult to monitor and force, every aspect of people's lives so we need everyone to decrease the amount of contacts outside their household and so we're at the strictest level of group sizes, five right now.
"But we really need people to take the spirit of that to mean, really, decrease the amount of socialization you do outside your household."
He added if Manitobans can follow through in this short window of two weeks, the Winnipeg region, as well as the whole province will see numbers decrease drastically.
Roussin also doubled down on the new isolation rules that he first brought up on Monday for the Winnipeg Metro Region.
He said if one person in a household has symptoms, everyone in the home must self-isolate until a COVID-19 test comes back.
"That self-isolation means you don't go to work, you don't go to school, you don't interact with others outside of your household. You don't attend activities or gatherings. The key to self-isolation, why it's so fundamental, is that anyone who's self-isolating should they become a case, which a certain proportion do, they should have zero contacts."
