Another Northern Manitoba with COVID-19 has died, the provincial government reported Feb. 23.
The person who died was a male in his 70s and he is the 77th northern resident to die while infected with the coronavirus since the pandemic began affecting this province nearly two years ago.
The death was one of 14 reported in Manitoba between Saturday and Wednesday morning. 1,663 Manitobans have now died while infected with COVID since March 2020.
Though the death toll continue to grow, the number of people in hospital and intensive care is dropping. There were 543 Manitobans in hospital with COVID on Feb. 23, down 10 from the previous day. 29 of them were in intensive care, a drop of two from the previous day. 55 of the Manitobans in hospital with COVID are northern residents and five of them are in intensive care.
Manitoba reported 369 confirmed cases of the virus on Wednesday, a likely underestimate due to limited testing. About half of those cases, 178, were in the north, where 10 of 15 health districts have more than 100 cases still listed as active.
A COVID-19 outbreak was declared Feb. 18 at Northern Spirit Manor personal care home in Thompson, where one staff member and three residents have been infected, according to the provincial government’s online COVID dashboard.
Though the test positivity rate in Manitoba as a whole is dropping, coming in at 14.8 per cent Feb. 23, it has been much higher in the north, ranging from 34.4 per cent to 40.6 per cent between Feb 9 and Feb. 21. The rate in the north was 37.5 per cent oo Feb. 21, the most recent date for which data is available.
81 per cent of Manitobans have received two or three doses of COVID-19 vaccine and 59 per cent of children aged 5 to 11 have received their first doses of vaccine. 76 per cent of infections in Manitoba are among people who are fully vaccinated. Those who have received two or three doses of vaccine also make up 72 per cent of patients in hospital with COVID and 62 per cent of current intensive care admissions. 75 per cent of people with COVID who died within the last six weeks were fully vaccinated. 33 per cent of patients in intensive care with the virus have not received a single dose of vaccine. Unvaccinated people make up only 14 per cent of the province’s vaccine-eligible residents.
