105 new COVID-19 cases reported in Manitoba Friday, more than 80% not fully vaccinated

Manitoba reported its highest daily COVID-19 case count in more than two weeks on Friday — more than 80 per cent of which were among people not fully vaccinated against the illness.

Of the 105 new infections, nine are people who were partially vaccinated. Another 77 are among Manitobans who have not been vaccinated against COVID-19 at all, the province's online vaccination dashboard says.

Most of the new cases are in the Winnipeg health region, with 33, and the much more sparsely populated Southern Health region, with 30. 

There are also 17 new infections in the Prairie Mountain Health region, 14 in the Northern Health Region and 11 in the Interlake-Eastern health region, the province's online COVID-19 dashboard says.

The spike in cases marks Manitoba's highest one-day increase in cases since Aug. 25, when the same number was reported. That update marked the first time the province had seen more than 100 daily cases since June.

Manitoba also reported another death linked to COVID-19, though few details were revealed. More information, including the person's age, sex and health region, are expected to be announced in the province's next coronavirus news release on Monday.

The death brings Manitoba's total linked to the illness to 1,200.

Most active hospitalizations are unvaccinated

Meanwhile, Manitoba's five-day test positivity rate has climbed to three per cent, the dashboard says, up from 2.6 per cent on Thursday. The province did 2,642 more tests for the illness on Thursday.

There are now 75 people hospitalized after getting COVID-19, down by two since Thursday. There are also 15 COVID-19 patients now in intensive care, the dashboard says, down by one.

Among those in hospital, 36 people still have active cases of the illness. Most of those cases are among people not fully vaccinated against the illness: four not yet protected with two doses and 27 with no shots at all, the dashboard says.

For those in intensive care, nine are still active cases. None of them are fully vaccinated — two are partially immunized and seven aren't vaccinated at all.

Manitoba also reported 75 cases that have been newly linked to more contagious coronavirus variants, the online variant dashboard says. Most of them — 71 — are still listed as unspecified strains, while four have been linked to the alpha variant.

The proportion of eligible Manitobans fully vaccinated against COVID-19 is now 78.3 per cent, while the rate of eligible people with at least one dose is 83.3 per cent, the province's vaccine dashboard says.

There are now 539 active COVID-19 cases in Manitoba. More than 70 per cent of them aren't fully immunized — 61 are partially vaccinated and 324 haven't had a COVID-19 vaccine shot.

In addition, 57,464 people have been deemed recovered after contracting the illness since the start of the pandemic, the dashboard says.