Manitoba reported no new deaths from COVID-19 May 14 but 491 new cases of the virus, mostly in Winnipeg, as public health officials advised that case numbers, test positivity and hospitalizations will continue to climb in the coming weeks before hopefully starting to fall.
Two previously announced cases were removed from the total for a net daily increase of 489 COVID cases. 328 were in Winnipeg and 88 in the southern health region, while the Interlake-Eastern region had 41 and there were 24 in the Prairie Mountain region. Northern Manitoba had only 10 new cases, with a pair of new cases each in the Cross Lake/Pimicikamak, The Pas/Opaskwayak/Kelsey, Flin Flon/Snow Lake/Cranberry/Sherridon and Bunibonibee/Oxford House/Manto Sipi/God’s River/God’s Lake health districts.
“In Northern Manitoba, we’re seeing the effect of the third wave to be much less than in the rest of the province,” said vaccination task force medical lead Dr. Joss Reimer at a May 14 news conference.
Five-day test positivity on Friday was 11.8 per cent and the province surpassed 44,000 total COVID infections with the addition of the new cases.
There are 239 people in hospital due to the virus, including 179 with active infections. Fifty people with active infections are in intensive care, as are 17 people who are no longer considered infectious. Thirteen northerners are hospitalized due to the virus, eight of them with active infections. One of the people hospitalized with an active case is the north’s only resident currently in intensive care.
Deputy chief provincial public health officer Dr. Jazz Atwal said Friday that about half of the people hospitalized in the past three weeks have been under the age of 50, divided approximately evenly between those under 30, those under 40 and those under 50. Hospitalizations have been increasing at about 18 per cent per week in recent weeks and Atwal expects that trend to continue for the next two weeks at least. With good adherence to public health restrictions, the number of new cases, which has risen about 33 per cent per week since April 23, could start to plateau and then level off about a week from now.
“If there is no adherence, we will go down a not very good path,” he said, taking note of what is happening in Ontario. “Do we want that to happen to Manitoba?”
The high number of cases in the third wave is driven in large part by non-compliance with public health orders and not limiting contacts, Atwal said.
The province also released modelling projections on Friday that showed intensive care occupancy is currently worse than what those models had categorized as an extreme scenario.
Manitoba opened vaccination appointment booking to Manitobans as young as 12 on Friday. People 12 to 17 will only be eligible to get the Pfizer vaccine and it s recommended that those age 12 to 15 attend their appointments with their parents.
The province expects to open up booking for second dose vaccine appointments by May 22, if not earlier, Reimer said.
Manitoba has administered 625,404 doses of vaccine so far and has received 767,670, with an additional 73,710 doses of the Pfizer vaccine expected next week.
“When we are immunized, we will slow the spread of COVID-19,” Reimer said. However, Atwal cautioned, immunity takes two weeks to build up after a first dose of vaccine and not everyone is totally immune to the virus after one dose. If people don’t follow public health orders and protect themselves from the virus, high cases numbers could continue into the summer.
