The deaths of two more Manitobans with COVID-19 have been linked to variants of concern, and 116 more people have been infected with the virus.
The latest victims include a woman in her 90s linked to an unspecified variant and an outbreak at Carman Memorial Hospital, and a man in his 90s from the Winnipeg Health region connected to the Alpha variant, first identified in the United Kingdom.
Of the 1,104 Manitobans with COVID-19 who have died since March 2020, 114 have been linked to the more-contagious variants.
As of Tuesday Manitoba has reported 13,882 variant cases, a jump of 279 cases since the numbers were last updated Saturday.
The Alpha strain remains the most dominant variant in Manitoba, with 6,037 confirmed cases, according to a provincial website tracking the strains.
The province has also recorded 45 cases of the Beta variant, which first emerged in South Africa, 166 cases of the Gamma variant, first detected in Brazil, and 101 cases of the Delta strain, first identified in India.
Another 7,533 variant cases are as yet unspecified, according to the site.
Of the province’s 2,972 active COVID-19 cases, more than half — 1,756 infections — are confirmed to be variants of concern.
Tuesday marks the third day in a row Manitoba has seen a daily case count less than 200. It’s also the lowest list of daily infections announced since mid-April.
Of the new cases, the largest number — 55 — are in the Winnipeg health region, with 23 in the Northern health region, 28 in Southern Health region, seven in the Prairie Mountain region, and three in the Interlake-Eastern region.
The five-day test positivity rate is 10.6 per cent provincially and 9.9 per cent in Winnipeg.
