The province reported 218 new cases of COVID-19 and no new deaths on Tuesday.
The majority of those cases — 156 of them — were housed in Winnipeg, where the test positivity rate climbed another 0.2% to 8.4%, the highest it’s been since the beginning of the year.
New cases in Prairie Mountain totalled 30, while Southern Health reported 15, Northern Health identified 12 and Interlake-Eastern was the lone health authority in single digits with seven new infections.
The provincial test positivity rate dropped slightly, down 0.1% from Monday to 7.5%.
Manitoba’s total caseload since the pandemic began is now at 38,025. There are 2,173 active cases, with 34,884 recoveries reported.
Manitoba’s death toll remained at 968 with no new deaths reported.
Hospitalization data, meanwhile, was unavailable due to technical issues with the province’s system. There were 148 people in hospital on Monday, including 37 in intensive care.
Meanwhile, the province churned through another 2,806 tests on Monday. There have been 649,827 tests conducted since February 2020.
Variants of concern
The province added 332 new cases of variants of concern between Sunday and Tuesday.
The province reports new variant cases only five days a week. Since its last update on Saturday, another 185 cases of B.1.1.7, three cases of the P1 variant, and 144 uncategorized cases were added to the provincial total, which is now at 1,641.
Cases of the B.1.1.7 variant surpassed 1,000 in Tuesday’s update and are now at 1,043. There are seven total cases of the P1 variant, including five now in Winnipeg, and 20 cases of the B.1.351 variant. A total of 571 cases have yet to be categorized.
There are 687 active cases of variants or 31.6% of Manitoba’s total active caseload of 2,173.
Four deaths have been attributed to variants, including the latest announced Monday, a Winnipeg woman in her 60s.
Vaccine update
Eligibility for the general population and First nations remained unchanged once again on Tuesday.
Currently, eligibility allows for anyone 50 and over, and First Nations people 30 and over, to book appointments at supersites and pop-up clinics.
The province administered another 8,512 doses of vaccine on Monday, with 363,206 Manitobans now with at least one shot. The province has now administered doses to one-third of the people 18 and older, at 33.4%.
There have been 71,926 people that have received the full two doses of the vaccine.
