Two more Northern Manitobans – a woman in her 50s and a man in his 60s – have died as a result of COVID-19, the provincial government announced April 29.
The total death toll in Manitoba from the pandemic now stands at 973.
Across the province, 230 new cases of the virus were reported on Thursday, though two previously announced cases were removed due to data corrections for a net daily increase of 228.
The north’s new case count remained lower than it has been in recent weeks, at 11, while there were 177 new cases in Winnipeg, 23 in the Prairie Mountain health region, 14 in the southern health region and five in the Interlake-Eastern region.
There are 80 Manitobas in hospital with active COVID-19 infections as well as 62 who are no longer considered infectious. Twenty-eight of the active case hospitalizations are in intensive care units, as are 13 people who are no longer considered infectious.
Manitoba’s five-day test positivity rate on April 29 was 7.2 per cent.
The number of infections caused by variants of concern in the north has risen to 54, 49 of which are the B.1.1.7 or United Kingdom variant, with the other five uncategorized.
All but two cases connected to staff and students at Thompson schools in the past two weeks up to April 28 have involved variants of concern. All six cases over that time span at R.D. Parker Collegiate, which is currently on remote learning only, have been the result of variants, as have four or five at Riverside School and the only case connected to Burntwood School in the last two weeks. There has also been one case connected to Wapanohk Community School since April 14. It has not been identified as involving a variant of concern.
As of April 28, 27,439 northern residents have received their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, while 5,901 have received two doses.
