Manitoba passed 1,300 total deaths due to COVID-19 with the announcement of 12 more deaths in the past three days Nov. 25, as the campaign to vaccinate children aged five to 11 in the province got underway.
The most recent Manitobans to die as the result of coronavirus infections included four residents each from the southern and Prairie Mountain health regions, three from the Winnipeg region and one from the Interlake-Eastern health region. 1,304 Manitobans have died from COVID-19 since the pandemic began. The number of northerners who died as a result of the virus remains at 63.
459 more Manitobans have tested positive for the virus in the past three days, including 129 on Tuesday, 147 yesterday and 183 today. Of the positive tests announced today, 119 affected people who were not fully vaccinated.
80 northerners have tested positive for COVID-19 in the past three days, including 34 today, 18 of whom are not fully vaccinated.
There are 299 active cases of COVID-19 in Northern Manitoba, including 81 in the Bunibonibee/Oxford House/Manto Sipi/God’s River/God’s Lake health district, 80 in the Island Lake district, 52 in the Norway House district, 47 in the Pukatawagan/Mathias Colomb district, 29 in the Cross Lake/Pimicikamak district and two in the Thompson/Mystery Lake district.
Across Manitoba, 136 people are in hospital due to the virus, including 24 in intensive care. Northern residents make up nine of those hospitalized, including one of the intensive care patients.
The five-day test positivity rate in Manitoba is 5.5 per cent.
About half of Manitobans with active COVID cases and half of those in hospital with active cases are unvaccinated while 82 per cent of those in intensive care with active infections are unvaccinated.
Manitoba chief public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin said Nov. 24 that the province will no longer publicly report some data regarding COVID cases and public health investigations, including possible public exposures on buses, trains or planes, unless there is a compelling reason to do so, partly because vaccination requirements make acquiring the virus in these settings less likely.
The province will no longer be reporting on variants of concern because 98 per cent of COVID cases in Manitoba now involve the Delta variant.
“It’s the dominant strain by far,” Roussin said. “Almost all cases diagnosed in Manitoba are that Delta variant.”
More than 23,000 vaccination appointments had already been booked by midday Wednesday, the third day that making such appointments was possible, vaccine task force medical lead Dr. Joss Reimer said Nov. 24. There are about 125,000 children between those ages in the province.