Three more Manitobans have died from COVID-19, as the province reports its lowest single-day increase in new cases in over three months.
Two of the deaths — a man in his 70s and another man in his 80s — are linked to a COVID-19 outbreak at the Heritage Life Personal Care Home in Niverville, Man., in the Southern Health region. A woman in her 80s from the Winnipeg health region also died from the illness.
A total of 832 people have now died from COVID-19 in Manitoba.
Public health officials announced 89 new cases Monday, the lowest increase since Oct. 19, when 80 new cases were reported.
Nearly half of the new cases announced Monday — 42 — are in the Northern Health Region. There are 22 new cases in the Interlake-Eastern health region, 18 in the Winnipeg health region, four in the Southern Health region and three in the Prairie Mountain Health region.
There are 3,466 active cases in the province, a news release said, although health officials have said that number is inflated by a data backlog.
The five-day test positivity rate throughout Manitoba is 7.9 per cent. It’s 4.2 per cent in Winnipeg.
There are four fewer people hospitalized with COVID-19 in Manitoba than there were on Sunday. In all, 255 people are in hospital due to COVID-19 — 104 patients are still infectious, while 151 are no longer infectious but still require care.
Of the hospitalizations, 38 patients are in the intensive care unit, a decrease of one from Sunday.
A COVID-19 outbreak has been declared at Actionmarguerite St. Joseph personal care home in Winnipeg.
The outbreak at Actionmarguerite St. Vital in Winnipeg has been declared over.
Dr. Brent Roussin, Manitoba’s chief public health officer, told reporters Monday that data regarding COVID-19 deaths will not be reported Tuesday, as the province undergoes a reset of its data entry.
This reset will implement more vetting when reporting COVID-19 deaths in Manitoba, as well as improve regional data, Roussin said.
Information omitted on Tuesday will be provided Wednesday, he said.
Northern Manitoba sales to expand
The Northern Health Region is currently Manitoba’s COVID-19 hot spot, with the provincial data site showing 1,897 active cases.
As a result, northern Manitoba was excluded from the amendment to the provincial public health order last month, which allowed shoppers to buy non-essential items in-store.
But public health officials are seeing people from the north travelling south to purchase non-essential items, despite regional restrictions discouraging non-essential travel, said Dr. Brent Roussin, Manitoba’s chief public health officer, at a news conference Monday.
“We definitely do not want to see that intraprovincial travel, especially for non-essential items,” Roussin said.
To reduce travel within the province, public health officials are amending the public health order to allow stores in northern Manitoba to sell non-essential items in-store, assuming physical distancing is maintained and occupancy is limited to 25 per cent or 250 people (whichever is lower).
The amendment comes into effect at 11:59 p.m. Monday and is set to expire on Feb. 12.
Restrictions against household visitors and services such as hair salons remain in effect in the northern region, Roussin said.
First Nations vaccine update
Dr. Marcia Anderson, Indigenous health and public health lead for the Manitoba First Nation pandemic response co-ordination team, and Dr. Joss Reimer, medical lead for Manitoba’s vaccination implementation task force, will speak about immunization plans for First Nations people at a news conference at 2 p.m. CT Monday.
A bulletin issued Friday by the co-ordination team says there were 2,780 known active COVID-19 cases among First Nations people in Manitoba — 2,334 on reserve, 446 off reserve.
As of Wednesday, 3,871 doses of COVID-19 vaccine were put into the arms of First Nations people in Manitoba. Only 27 people had received their second dose, said the weekly bulletin issued by the co-ordination team.
New travel restrictions came into place in Manitoba on Friday. With some exceptions, people travelling to Manitoba must self-isolate for two weeks upon arrival.
Starting Wednesday night, new federal travel restrictions will mean no international passenger, private or charter flights will land in Winnipeg.
