Manitoba recorded more than 500 new cases of COVID-19 for the third time in four days May 10.
There were 502 new cases announced Monday, though four previously announced cases were removed due to a data correction for a net daily increase of 498 cases.
Four deaths were also announced, one of them a man in his 50s from the north. He is the 49th northern resident to die as a result of COVID-19
The five-day test positivity rate in Manitoba May 10 was 11.6 per cent, the highest it has been since Dec. 29
399 of the new cases were in Winnipeg while Northern Manitoba had the lowest number of new cases of any health region on Monday, with 10 new cases. There are currently 10 northern health districts with active cases of COVID-19, six of which have more than 10 active cases. The Island Lake health district, with 151, and the Cross Lake/Pimicikamak health district, with 45, have the most active cases, according to the province’s COVID-19 website.
Manitoba has passed 42,000 total cases of the virus since the pandemic began and there are 215 Manitobans in hospital due to COVID as of May 10, 153 of them with active infections. Forty-eight of those with active infections are in intensive care, as are 12 who are no longer infectious but still require critical care.
There are 13 northerners in hospital due to the virus, four of whom have active infections, There are currently no northern residents in intensive care due to COVID-19.
There have ben 64 northern COVID-19 cases confirmed to have been caused by the B.1.1.7 variant of the virus which was first identified in the United Kingdom, as well 10 others caused by uncategorized variants of concern.
In the two weeks leading up to May 5, there had been nine COVID cases among people linked to schools in Thompson, including one each at Wapanohk Community School, Burntwood School and Riverside School, as well as six at R.D. Parker Collegiate, which resumed in-person classes May 10 after two weeks of remote learning only.
Chief provincial public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin said Monday that stricter public health orders that came into effect the previous day were necessary in order to reduce the number of new cases and the demand the pandemic is putting on health care resources.
“We see the demands on the ICU so we have to change this trajectory,” he said, reminding Manitobans to self-isolate if anyone in their household has symptoms and is awaiting test results, and to be forthcoming about places they’ve been and people they’ve been in contact with when speaking with public health.
“There’s no reason to withhold that information,” he said. “They don’t need to worry about the enforcement. These contact investigations are very important to ending transmission chains.”
Roussin said he expects case numbers will continue to climb for at least a week or two, maybe longer if people don’t change their behaviour. He did express optimism that the increase in cases could be turned around quicker now than it was in the fall and winter, thanks to people receiving vaccines.
“These vaccinations are really our pathway out of this,” he said. “It’s very clear that the vaccine is protective.”
As of May 10, 565,219 doses of vaccine had been administered in Manitoba, the provincial government said.
