Northern Manitoba led all health regions in the province for new COVID-19 cases March 11, with 50 additions to the total, pushing the region past 5,200 total infections since the global pandemic was declared one year ago.
The Pukatawagan/Mathias Colomb health district led the north with 29 new cases of the virus on Thursday, followed by Thompson/Mystery Lake with nine, Bunibonibee/Oxford House/Manto Sipi/God’s River/God’s Lake with six and the Cross Lake/Pimicikamak and Island Lake health districts with five new cases apiece. There are now 120 confirmed active cases of the virus in Pukatawagan.
The 35th death of a northerner was also reported March 11, a man in his 70s from the Thompson health district, according to provincial data online. There were two other COVID-related deaths in the province announced, bringing the total since the pandemic began to 911.
Winnipeg was the only other health region with more than 10 new cases on Thursday, with 31, while the Prairie Mountain and Interlake-Eastern health regions had two and one new infections respectively. Overall there were 91 new infections in Manitoba, though three previously announced cases were removed due to data corrections, leaving the net increase at 88.
The number of hospitalizations in Manitoba continues to decline with 156 total COVID patients March 11, 54 of whom have active infections. Eight of those with active infections and 14 of those who are no longer considered infectious are in intensive case. There are six northerners in intensive care, four of whom have active infections, while the total number of northern residents in hospital is 22, 16 of whom are infectious.
No new cases of the United Kingdom and South African variants of concern were reported on Thursday. There have been 11 of each detected in the province so far.
Manitoba’s five-day test positivity rate on March 11 was 3.7 per cent.
