Three more people have died and Manitoba hit a new pandemic high on Thursday with 560 cases, the largest single-day total in the province to date.
The previous high of 546 was set on Nov. 23 during the second wave.
The new high mark comes during a week of worrying milestones.
Manitoba now has the second-highest daily infection rate of all provinces, trailing behind only Alberta.
The provincial seven-day average for daily cases also just breached a record of 421 set last fall; the rate is now 468.
The crush of daily cases over the past month has put dozens in hospital, with Manitoba hitting a new high of 62 COVID-19 patients in intensive care as of mid-week. The number in intensive care remains at 62 on Thursday.
Leaked modelling data from the province predicted Manitoba wouldn’t hit that mark for about two more weeks.
The second wave peak for all intensive care patients, the total for COVID-19 and all other conditions, was 129. As of Wednesday, there were a total of 115 patients in Manitoba ICUs.
The number of people in hospital Thursday due to COVID-19 jumped from 221 to 240.
Another outbreak has been declared at Donwood Manor Personal Care Home in Winnipeg, while an outbreak has been declared over at the CN Rail offices at 821 Lagimodiere Blvd.
The provincial test positivity rate is down slightly to 12 per cent. Winnipeg’s rate was 14.4 per cent for the second day in a row.
The total number of cases of more contagious coronavirus variants rose by 388 to 5,210. Of Manitoba’s 4,046 active cases, 1,974 are now variants.
So far, 1,002 people have died due to COVID-19, including 29 linked to variants.
