Ten new positive tests for COVID-19 in Northern Manitoba were announced by the provincial government Oct. 29, though data posted online shows 11 more total cases than there were on Wednesday.
Four of the new cases are in the Cross Lake/Pimicikamak Cree Nation health district which now has 14 active cases of the virus and is designated at the red/critical level in the province’s Pandemic Reponse System effective 12:01 a.m. today. As a result of this designation, public gatherings are not permitted, all businesses except those providing essential services must stay closed and residents are required to stay at home except to seek testing or medical care, to shop for essential supplies or to work, if they are employed in essential services. Non-medical masks must be worn outside of homes.
There were also four new cases in The Pas/Opaskwayak Cree Nation/Kelsey health district, which now has 32 active cases and six recoveries and the most total cases of any northern health district at 38. One new public exposure at Margaret Barbour Collegiate Institute in The Pas has also been announced after public health officials learned that a person who tested positive was at the school Oct. 16 when they may have been infectious.
One new positive test was reported in the Thompson/Mystery Lake health district, which now has eight active cases and 27 recoveries. Single new cases were also reported in the Flin Flon/Snow Lake/Cranberry/Sherridon health district, which now has two active cases, and in the Bunibonibee/Oxford House/Manto Sipi/God’s River/God’s Lake health district, which now has three active cases.
Four northern residents are hospitalized due to COVID-19 none of them in intensive care and the total number of cases in the region since the pandemic began is now at 130, 72 of which are active and 58 recovered.
For the province as a whole, 193 new cases were announced Oct. 29, 139 of them in Winnipeg. The 62nd COVID-related death in Manitoba was announced – a man in his 80s from the southern health region – and there are 97 Manitobans in hospital due to the virus, 17 of them in intensive care. The test positivity rate in the province is 7.8 per cent and there are 2,409 active cases. The total number of COVID-cases since the pandemic began is 4,894, with 2,423 off those having recovered.
