Two more people have died from COVID-19 in Manitoba, provincial health officials announced Monday.
The two people who died are a man in the Southern Health region and a woman in the Prairie Mountain Health region, both in their 80s.
A total of 18 people have now died from the new coronavirus in Manitoba since the start of the pandemic.
Chief Provincial Public Health Officer Dr. Brent Roussin also announced 22 more cases in the province, including 16 in Winnipeg.
“There has been a concerning increase in the number of cases in Winnipeg, with many cases having large numbers of close contacts,” health officials said in a news release.
There were three new cases in the Southern Health region, two in the Prairie Mountain Health region and one in the Interlake-Eastern health region.
Roussin said there are three more locations in Winnipeg where people may have been exposed to the coronavirus.
The first possible exposure was on a Winnipeg Transit bus, route 14, from Ellice Avenue and Spence Street to St. Mary Avenue, on Tuesday, Sept. 15, between 11:10 a.m. and 11:30 a.m.
The same day, there was a possible exposure at Planet Fitness, 783 Leila Ave., from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Someone who tested positive for COVID-19 visited 7 Arabian Dreams at 775 Corydon Ave. on Friday between 11 p.m. and 2 a.m., and on Sunday from 12:45 a.m. to 1 a.m.
On the weekend, the province warned of potential exposures at three Manitoba schools — Garden City Collegiate and Gordon Bell High School in Winnipeg and Meadows School in Brandon.
There have now been 1,608 cases of COVID-19 in Manitoba, with eight people currently hospitalized, including two in intensive care, and 16 deaths.
On Sunday, Manitoba’s five-day test positivity rate, a rolling average of the COVID-19 tests that come back positive, was at 1.8 per cent, down from 1.9 per cent on Sunday.
