6 COVID-19 deaths reported in Manitoba, no change to hospitalizations

There are six more COVID-19 deaths in Manitoba and hospitalizations are holding steady on Wednesday, provincial officials say the day after a number of public health orders were lifted.

Other changes are coming next month: On March 1, proof of vaccination rules will be eliminated, and on March 15, masks will no longer be mandatory in indoor public places.

"This is going to be a difficult transition phase, and of course we're not done with COVID, so we're going to have to continue to work together to protect Manitoba," said Dr. Brent Roussin, Manitoba's chief public health officer, in a news conference on Wednesday.

"It's very likely that we'll see more COVID-19 in Manitoba, more waves and more variants, but we have many tools in place to protect ourselves moving forward, vaccines being the most important one."

There were two deaths reported in the Winnipeg health region: a man in his 20s and a woman in her 90s linked to the outbreak at Tuxedo Villa personal care home.

The two deaths in the Southern Health region were a man in his 70s and a woman in her 60s linked to an outbreak at Boyne Lodge. 

The deaths in Prairie Mountain Health were a man and a woman in their 80s who were linked to the outbreak at St. Paul's Home.

The total number of COVID-19 deaths in Manitoba is now 1,642.

There are still 614 people in hospital with the virus, including 38 people with COVID-19 in intensive care units, also unchanged from Tuesday.

The province reported 352 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, although public health officials have repeatedly said those numbers are a significant undercount of the total number of active cases. Manitoba is restricting access to PCR tests at provincial sites and doesn't track most rapid test results.

The Winnipeg health region has 127 new cases. There are 71 in the Prairie Mountain Health region, 61 in the Interlake-Eastern health region, 54 in the Northern Health Region and 39 in the Southern Health region.

There were 1,595 PCR tests done in Manitoba on Tuesday.

The province's five-day test positivity rate dropped to 21.2 per cent from 22 per cent the day before.

The Wednesday briefing comes one day after pandemic capacity limits were lifted for restaurants, licensed premises, entertainment venues, indoor and outdoor sporting events and casinos and gatherings at private residences.