The deaths of 15 more Manitobans due to COVID-19 were announced Dec. 16, the first day that vaccinations against the virus were administered to critical health care workers in the province.
The newly announced deaths bring the provincial total since the pandemic began to 523. There were 292 new positive tests for the virus announced on Wednesday, and 328 people hospitalized as a result of COVID-19, 46 of them in intensive care.
The province announced 47 new cases of COVID-19 in the Northern Regional Health Authority (NRHA) Dec. 16 but health district numbers on the provincial government’s COVID-19 web page showed only 33 new cases, with another 23 cases removed from previous totals. The total number of COVID-19 cases in the north only went up by 10 from yesterday, data on the web page shows.
Most of the new northern cases were from the Island Lake health district, which had 20 more cases than on Tuedsay, while there were seven new cases in the Thompson/Mystery Lake health district and five in the Shamattawa/Yokrk Factory/Tataskweyak/Split Lake health district.
The number of northerners hospitalized due to the virus continues to rise, with 38 from the region in hospital on Wednesday, three of them in intensive care.
Two outbreaks in the NRHA – at St. Paul’s Residence in The Pas and the Flin Flon Personal Care Home – have been declared over, but a number of new possible exposures in the region have been announced. People may have been exposed to the virus on an NCN Thompson Bus from Thompson to Winnipeg overnight Dec. 7-8 and on an NCN Thompson Bus from Winnipeg to Thompson overnight Dec. 8-9. There was also a possible exposure on a Calm Air flight from Thompson to Winnipeg Dec. 8 and on a Perimeter Aviation flight from Winnipeg to Oxford House Dec. 9.
The provincial five-day positivity rate among those tested for the virus was at 13.6 per cent Wednesday but chief public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin said lab turnaround times are improving with many patients getting results form their tests in 27 hours or less.
Roussin also said that, with the first doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine having been given to Manitoba health care workers this morning, there is light on the horizon.
“Today we start fighting back,” he said.
The first person to receive the vaccine was Dr. Brian Penner, who works in internal medicine at Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg.
“I am now safer for my friends and colleagues and I hope everyone does their part to stop the spread,” said Penner in a provincial government new release.
Deputy chief public health officer Dr. Jazz Atwal said at Wednesday’s news conference that there is still a long road ahead, however.
“We’re probably still halfway through this pandemic,” he said, as it will take many months to vaccinate a significant proportion of Manitoba’s population. The expectation at this point is that about seven per cent of the province’s presidents will be vaccinated by the end of March, with critical health care workers, residents of long-term care homes, people over 80 and adults at risk who live in remote or northern First Nations identified as priority groups for vaccination.
