Manitoba is reporting the lowest COVID-19 case count it has seen since mid-October.
On Monday, the province announced 53 new cases had been identified – the lowest single-day case count since October 18 – when 44 cases were reported.
While COVID-19 case counts are dropping to October levels, hospitalizations remain much higher than they were four months ago.
In mid-October, the province had fewer than 40 people in hospital with COVID-19. As of Monday, the province had 271 infected people in hospital. This included 105 people with active COVID-19 cases and 166 people who are no longer infectious but still need care.
There were 34 people with COVID-19 in intensive care on Monday. Of the people in ICU, 15 had active cases and 19 were no longer infectious but still needed critical care.
Dr. Brent Roussin, the chief provincial public health officer, said the ICU numbers are the lowest they have been since late November.
“This is all the result of the work of Manitobans,” Roussin said, citing the code restrictions that have been in place in the province since Nov. 12.
“The numbers show us that they are effective, they are working, and has put Manitobans back in the position to continue our slow cautious reopening.”
The province has released some proposed changes to the health orders that could take effect on Friday, Feb. 12, when the current round of restrictions expire.
Roussin said the province will release more details of what the new set of orders will look like on Tuesday.
Along with the cases, the province reported four more Manitobans had died related to COVID-19.
The deaths include two women in their 60s and 70s from the Northern Health Region, a man in his 70s from Winnipeg, and a woman in her 80s whose death has been connected to the outbreak at Morris General Hospital in the Southern Health Region.
This brings the total number of deaths related to COVID-19 in Manitoba to 850.
