Two more Manitobans with COVID-19 have died, and health officials say one of the victims had been infected with the B.1.1.7 variant of concern, first identified in the United Kingdom.
It’s the third day in a row a death has been linked to the more-contagious strain of the virus in Manitoba and comes as the province added 272 new COVID-19 cases Wednesday.
The province’s latest fatalities are a man in his 60s and a woman in her 70s, both from the Winnipeg Health region. The woman’s death is linked to the B.1.1.7 variant, according to health officials.
The latest cases reported on the province’s online COVID-19 portal bring Manitoba’s total case count to 40,085 after one previous case was removed due to data correction.
Since March 2020, 982 Manitobans with COVID-19 have died, including 12 linked to variants of concern.
The majority of the new infections identified as of Wednesday morning come from Winnipeg, where 182 cases were reported. Another 37 cases were reported in the Prairie Mountain Health region, 20 were found in both the Southern and Interlake-Eastern health regions, and 13 were identified in the Northern Health region.
Manitoba currently has 2,780 active COVID-19 cases, according to health data, including 956 infections confirmed to be variants of concern.
The five-day test positivity rate is 8.8 per cent provincially and 9.2 per cent in Winnipeg.
