March 22, 2021

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Public health officials advise one additional death in a person with COVID-19 is being reported today:
• a male in his 50s from the Winnipeg Health Region.

The current five-day COVID-19 test positivity rate is 5.2 per cent provincially and 3.7 per cent in Winnipeg. As of 9:30 a.m. today, 66 new cases of the virus have been identified. However, one case has been removed due to data correction. This brings the net-new number of cases today to 65 and the total number of lab-confirmed cases in Manitoba to 33,418.
 
Additionally, public health officials are announcing one confirmed case to be a result of the B.1.1.7 COVID-19 variant of concern have been detected. This case is from the Prairie Mountain Health region. 

Public health officials note cases of variants of concerns are announced following the identification of a positive test result once a screening and sequencing process is completed. They are not included in the new case totals announced daily.

Today’s COVID-19 data shows:
• zero cases in the Interlake–Eastern health region; 
• 17 cases in the Northern health region;  
• zero cases in the Prairie Mountain Health region;  
• four cases in the Southern Health–Santé Sud health region; and  
• 45 cases in the Winnipeg health region.

The data also shows:
• 1,205 active cases and 31,285 individuals who have recovered from COVID-19; 
• 62 people in hospital with active COVID-19 as well as 76 people in hospital with COVID-19 who are no longer infectious but continue to require care, for a total of 138 hospitalizations; 
• 11 people in intensive care units with active COVID-19 as well as 14 people with COVID-19 who are no longer infectious but continue to require critical care, for a total of 25 ICU patients; 
• the total number of deaths in people with COVID-19 is 928; and 
• the total number of confirmed variant of concern cases of B.1.1.7 is 63 and B.1.351 is 14, bringing the total number of confirmed variant of concern cases to 77. 

Laboratory testing numbers show 1,533 tests were completed yesterday, bringing the total number of lab tests completed since early February 2020 to 564,735. 
 
The outbreak has been declared over at St. Boniface Hospital unit E5.

Additional data related to COVID-19, including data on outbreaks as well as some downloadable and historic data, can be found at https://geoportal.gov.mb.ca/.

Possible exposure locations are listed online by region at the province’s #RestartMB Pandemic Response System webpage. For up-to-date information on possible public exposures to COVID-19 in regions, visit www.gov.mb.ca/covid19/updates/flights.html#event and click on your region. 

As of March 23, the following individuals are eligible for to access a rapid testing appointment at the Fast Pass site at 1066 Nairn Ave. in Winnipeg, whether or not they are showing symptoms:
• all Manitoba teachers, educational support staff and other staff working in schools and directly with students; and
• Manitoba staff working in licensed centre-based child-care facilities and child-care providers or individuals working in licensed home-based facilities.

For up-to-date information on COVID-19 in Manitoba, including information the online screening tool, testing criteria and locations, self-isolation requirements, public health fundamentals and the provincial response level on the #RestartMB Pandemic Response System, visit:
www.manitoba.ca/COVID19. 

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