Manitoba reported 12 more cases of highly infectious coronavirus variants in three of its health regions on Thursday.
Eleven of those cases were the B117 variant first identified in the U.K., with nine in the Winnipeg health region and two in the Southern Health region, the province said in a news release.
A case of the B1351 variant first detected in South Africa was also announced in the province’s Prairie Mountain Health region, the release said.
That update brings Manitoba’s total B117 cases to 63 and B1351 cases to 13.
The province also reported 91 new COVID-19 cases and one more death linked to the illness: a woman in her 60s linked to the outbreak at the Portage District General Hospital in Portage la Prairie.
Manitoba’s total number of coronavirus-linked deaths is now at 918.
Almost half the new COVID-19 cases reported Thursday are in the Northern Health region, which posted 42.
The Winnipeg-area health region reported 33 cases, while the remaining new infections are in the Prairie Mountain and Southern health regions (each with six) and the Interlake-Eastern Health region with four, the release said.
The province’s five-day test positivity rate rose to 4.7 per cent, the release said, up from 4.4 on Wednesday. In Winnipeg, that rate is up to 3.6 per cent, up from 3.4 since Wednesday.
There are now 146 COVID-19 patients hospitalized in Manitoba, down by three since Wednesday. There are also two more people with the illness in intensive care, for a total of 23.
There have now been 33,085 COVID-19 cases identified in Manitoba, including 31,078 people deemed recovered and 1,089 still considered active, though health officials have said that number may be inflated by a data entry backlog.
There were 2,473 COVID-19 tests done in Manitoba on Wednesday, the release said.
