A third Manitoban has died from the novel coronavirus, Manitoba’s chief provincial public health officer said April 7.
The patient who died was a man in his 60s with underlying medical conditions who had been hospitalized in intensive care.
Thirteen more people tested positive since yesterday, bringing the provincial total to 217 since the first positive test less than a month ago. One of those positive tests was in the Northern Regional Health Authority (NRHA) area. the province does not identify cases outside of Winnipeg by the community in which the person who tested positive lives.
A dozen people who have tested positive are currently hospitalized, six of them in intensive care. Twenty-one of those who have tested positive for COVID-19 have recovered, which means 14 days have passed since their symptoms went away.
There were 781 test completed April 6 and 14,280 tests have been d\conducted overall in the province.
Chief provincial public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin said he didn’t believe Manitoba was nearing the peak of the coronavirus pandemic, predicting that it would be many weeks before the province gets through the first wave of infections.
“We are early in the outbreak of this virus,” he said. "I think we’re going to see many more cases here in Manitoba."
Other jurisdictions seem to be providing evidence that social distancing can slow the virus’s spread, said Roussin, and the proportion of positive tests in Manitoba is remaining stable.
“We’re not seeing a lot of severe cases compared to other jurisdictions,” he said.
While social distancing should prove effective, Roussin said it can’t be maintained for a long period.
“We have to find ways to be able to lift it eventually,” he said, but for now the best health advice is to stay home as much as possible. “We know the virus is in all health regions. You cannot assume the virus isn’t in your community. You should assume the virus is in your community.”
Manitoba’s chief nursing officer Lanette Siragusa said that an online therapy app for people dealing with anxiety over the pandemic should be available to Manitobans 16 and older for free beginning next week.
As of April 7, there were more than 17,000 probable or confirmed cases of the coronavirus in Canada and 345 of those who tested positive had died.
