Health officials say another two Manitobans have died from COVID-19 and 261 more have been infected as case numbers swell in the north.
The latest cases announced on the province’s online COVID-19 portal Thursday bring the province’s total number of cases reported since March to 26,954 after health officials say two previously announced cases were removed due to a data correction.
Since March, 755 Manitobans have died from COVID-19.
The latest victims in include a man in his 60s from the Winnipeg Health region and a man in his 90s from the Prairie Mountain Health region connected to an outbreak at the McCreary/Alonsa Health Centre.
More than half of the new infections reported Thursday — 139 — were identified in the Northern Health region, health officials said.
The others include 75 in the Winnipeg Health region, 13 in the Southern Health region, 23 in the Prairie Mountain Health region, and 11 cases in the Interlake-Eastern Health region.
According to the province there are currently 117 people in hospital with COVID-19 as well as 173 who remain in care but are no longer considered active cases, for a total of 289 hospitalizations as of Thursday morning.
There are 16 COVID-19 patients in ICU, with another 21 who are no longer infectious but continue to need critical care, for a total of 37 patients in ICU.
The five-day COVID-19 test positivity rate was 10 per cent provincially and 7.1 per cent in Winnipeg as of Friday morning.
Health officials say 2,333 tests for novel coronavirus were done Wednesday, bringing the total number of tests done across the province since February to 446,018.
There were 2,866 active cases of COVID-19 across Manitoba on Thursday, according to provincial data, but Manitoba’s acting deputy chief provincial public health officer said the number of active cases is likely closer to 1,394 due to a backlog in case monitoring.
