There are 476 new cases of COVID-19 and 12 more deaths in Manitoba, the province says, bringing the death toll to 248.
“These are Manitobans who are missed and are loved,” said Chief Provincial Public Health Officer Dr. Brent Roussin.
The number of patients in hospital due to the illness has declined slightly to 292, down from 296 yesterday. Active cases in intensive care are also down five to 47.
The five-day provincial test positivity rate ties the record of 14.2 per cent.
Five of the people who died were in the Southern Health region. One of the deaths is someone from the Northern Health Region, and another is from the Prairie Mountain Health region.
Five deaths were in the Winnipeg health region, including two linked to hospital outbreaks.
The province is bolstering its contact tracing capacity using an automated calling system that will expand current monitoring methods, Roussin said.
Previous positive cases will be asked about testing, isolation and other public health guidelines in a question-and-answer format that people can respond to using the phone keypad.
The initial rollout will be focused on checking in with people who tested positive and are at or near the end of their mandated isolation period. There are “a lot” of people that are beyond their incubation period but remain listed in the active case totals, he said, and this should help deal with that backlog.
Despite a slight decline in the number in hospital, Roussin said health-care workers remain overwhelmed by the consistent pressure from high case numbers and people in hospital.
“Our health-care system is being pushed to its capacity,” he said. “Our health-care system can’t sustain levels of cases like this much longer.”
More to come
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Manitoba’s top doctor will share the latest update on COVID-19 numbers in the province today after records for daily cases and the number in hospital with the illness were set yesterday.
Chief Provincial Public Health Officer Dr. Brent Roussin is expected to hold a news conference at 12:30 p.m. CT.
CBC News will live stream the briefing here and on CBC Gem, Facebook and Twitter.
At a morning news conference, Premier Brian Pallister said 95 tickets were issued last week to people violating current public health orders, as the province ramps up enforcement.
He also shared details about COVID-19 financial support programs for businesses forced to close during recent widespread restrictions.
Both Tuesday news conferences come after a record-breaking 546 cases were announced yesterday.
Manitoba also reached another grim milestone on Monday, surpassing 14,000 total cases to date, meaning one in 100 Manitobans have contracted the virus.
The number of people in hospital with the illness also surged to a new high of 296, with a record-tying 52 in intensive care. Health officials continue to warn the system is strained and cannot sustain the continued pressures it is facing as cases mount and health-care workers are taken out of rotation due to exposures in hospital settings.
All three records occurred on the same day Roussin shared the first hint that provincewide code red restrictions under Manitoba’s pandemic response system may be working. The number of close contacts of positive cases has declined from about seven a month ago to closer to two more recently, he said.
The code red, or critical, level on the provincial pandemic scale was put in place nearly two weeks ago, ushering in a partial lockdown that closed places of worship, theatres, salons, gyms and a range of other non-essential businesses.
More stringent restrictions came into effect on Friday, banning private indoor gatherings, with few exceptions, and restricting the sale of non-essential items at businesses permitted to remain open to in-store shopping.
As of yesterday, 236 people had died of COVID-19, with nearly half of those deaths reported this month.
Many of the deaths are linked to care home outbreaks — a quarter of all deaths are tied to two Winnipeg long-term care facilities.
