8 more deaths, 238 new cases of COVID-19 reported in Manitoba Saturday

There are 238 new cases of COVID-19 in Manitoba on Saturday and eight more people have died from the illness, according to a provincial news release.

That brings the total number of deaths related to COVID-19 to 555, nearly half of them within the last three weeks.  

Four of the deaths reported Saturday are linked to outbreaks, including:

• A woman in her 70s linked to the outbreak at Morris General Hospital.
• Two women — one in her 70s and one in her 80s — connected to the outbreak at Fred Douglas Lodge in Winnipeg.
• A woman in her 90s connected to the outbreak at Park Manor care home in Winnipeg.

Three other people from Winnipeg are among the latest deaths — a woman in her 50s and a man and a woman in their 80s — along with a woman in her 60s from the Northern Health region.

There are 298 people in hospital with COVID-19 who are considered infectious, including 44 in intensive care.

On Friday, there were a total of 378 people in hospital with the illness, including 305 considered infectious. There were 50 total cases in intensive care units Friday, with 43 still infectious.

Of Saturday's new cases, 104 are in the Winnipeg health region. There are also 55 in the Northern Health region, where there are currently severe outbreaks in remote First Nations. 

There are 33 new cases in the Interlake-Eastern health region, 30 in the Southern Health region and 16 in the Prairie Mountain Health region.

Saturday's update marks the fifth time this week that Manitoba's daily increase in COVID-19 cases has been under 300. The province's total case count jumped by 350 on Friday.

The province's five-day COVID-19 test positivity rate — a rolling average of the number of tests that come back positive — is 13.2 per cent, down from 13.6 on Friday. Winnipeg's test positivity rate is 12 per cent.

The province reported 5,668 active cases and 16,406 recoveries from the illness as of Saturday, but has previously said active case counts may be inflated due to data entry backlogs.

The total number of cases since the start of the pandemic now sits at 22,630.

Outbreaks across province

A number of outbreaks were declared on Saturday, including in three different hospitals.

Those include outbreaks in Winnipeg at Seven Oaks General Hospital (units 4U 4-7 and 4U 8-12) and Health Sciences Centre (unit GH4), and an outbreak at Beausejour Hospital, northeast of Winnipeg.

The emergency department in Beausejour is closed until further notice due to the outbreak, according to the province. Residents should call 911 for emergency care, the provincial update said.

Outbreaks were also declared in Lodge 4 at Deer Lodge Centre in Winnipeg, at Lions Prairie Manor in Portage la Prairie, and at Northern Spirit Manor in Thompson.

These sites have all moved to the red, or "critical," level of the province's colour-coded pandemic response system.

Winnipeggers who are tested for the virus and provide their cellphone number may receive a text message telling them their results are available online, although the test results won't be included in the text, the province said Saturday.

The text-notification system will begin at testing sites in Winnipeg, and will expand to other areas of the province in the coming weeks. 

A new drive-thru testing site in the Interlake town of Arborg will open on Monday at 323 Sunset Blvd. It will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, except for Tuesdays and Thursdays, when it will be open from noon to 8 p.m.