Northern Manitoba reported its highest one-day number of new COVID-19 cases in more than three months Oct. 7, with 37 new infections in the past 24 hours, 26 of them in people who are not fully vaccinated.
The number was the highest out of all of Manitoba’s five health regions on Thursday and the highest single-day addition to the north’s total since June 17.
Today is the second time in the last 10 days that the north has seen 30 or more new cases of the virus and every day in October so far has seen at least 10 new cases announced for the region.
The spike in northern infections – there are now more than 200 active cases in the region – is being driven by a rapid rise in the Pukatawagan/Mathias Colomb health district, which now has 73 active cases of COVID, 34 more than it had on Monday. The community has been moved to red/critical on the provincial pandemic response system and Mathias Colomb Cree Nation chief and council have banned gatherings and issued a stay-at-home order for residents, who are only to go out for medical care or testing, to purchase essential supplies, to hunt or fish or if they work in essential services. Non-medical masks must be worn outside the home. The community’s school was moved to remote learning for at least two weeks as of Oct. 1.
There are 69 active COVID infections in the Norway House health district, 21 in the Shamattawa/York Factory/Tataskweyak/Split Lake district, 15 in the Island Lake district, 12 in The Pas/Opaskwayak/Kelsey health district, six in the Cross Lake/Pimicikamak district and four in the Thompson/Mystery Lake district as of Oct. 7, according to the province’s COVID website.
Manitoba-wide, 329 new infections have been reported in the past three days, including 132 today, 95 on Wednesday and 102 on Tuesday. 86 of those cases were in the southern health region, 79 in Winnipeg, 68 in the north, 67 in the Prairie Mountain health region and 29 in the Interlake-Eastern health region.
Two more people have died as a result of their infections, making the total number of COVID-related deaths in Manitoba since the pandemic began 1,215 and the five-day test positivity rate is 3.4 per cent, down slightly from Monday.
85 Manitobans are hospitalized due to COVID-19, 15 of them in intensive care. Six of those in hospital are northern residents, including one in intensive care.
95 of today’s new cases were in people who aren’t fully vaccinated, provincial data shows, and 69 per cent of active cases are in people who have not been fully vaccinated. 88 per cent of patients hospitalized with active infections are not fully vaccinated, as are 100 per cent of patients with active infections currently in intensive care.
