Northern Manitoba accounted for nearly 60 per cent of the province’s 76 new cases of COVID-19 announced Feb. 17.
Forty-four new cases of the virus were announced in the north, including 14 new cases in the Cross Lake/Pimicikamak health district, which had additional public health orders banning public gatherings and closing non-essential businesses put into effect Feb. 13 due to increasing transmission, as well as 11 new cases in the Shamattawa/York Factory/Tataskweyak/Split Lake health district, eight in The Pas/Opaskwayak/Kelsey health district and seven in the Thompson/Mystery Lake health district. There are 797 active cases of COVID-19 in the region and there have been 4,494 cases in total in the north since the start of the pandemic.
The total number of cases in the province passed 31,000 with the addition of the new cases after one previous case was removed due to a data correction and there was one more death, making the total since the pandemic started 876 deaths. The current five-day test positivity rate is 5.9 per cent.
There are 231 Manitobans in hospital due to the virus, 89 of whom have active infections. There are also 28 people in intensive care as a result of COVID-19, 15 of whom are still considered infectious. These numbers include 25 northerners in hospital, 15 of whom have active infections. One of the northerners with an active infection is in intensive care and there is also one northern resident in ICU who is no longer considered infectious.
