Three more people have died and Manitoba has 184 new cases of COVID-19, setting a new record for the most cases in a single day, according to public health officials.
Two of the people who died, a man in his 80s and a woman in her 80s, are connected to the outbreak at St. Boniface Hospital, while the third, a woman in her 60s, is connected to the Parkview Place care home outbreak.
The Parkview Place outbreak, which is now connected to 19 deaths, is the worst care home outbreak in the province.
On Monday, an official with the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority confirmed the outbreak has now spanned the majority of floors inside the facility, with 121 infections between residents and staff.
There are now 83 people in hospital — three more than there were on Monday — and 15 people are in intensive care.
The current five-day test-positivity rate — a rolling average of the number of COVID-19 tests that come back positive — continued its record-breaking climb, reaching 7.5 per cent on Tuesday, up from 7.1 per cent on Monday.
The latest numbers come one day after Chief Provinicial Public Health Officer Dr. Brent Roussin and Chief Nursing Officer Lanette Siragusa warned that rapidly rising COVID-19 cases are putting strain on the province’s health system.
Public health officials in Manitoba have been trying for weeks to slow the spread of COVID-19, particularly in the Winnipeg metropolitan area and the Northern Health region, but case numbers and hospitalizations have continued to set new daily records.
Winnipeg and surrounding communities have been at the restricted, or orange, level on the province’s pandemic response system for more than four weeks now. The Northern Health region moved to that level on Monday, reducing caps on gathering sizes and closing numerous businesses, including entertainment venues and casinos.
The provincial government more than doubled fines for people who don’t abide by public health orders.
Of the 184 new cases announced Tuesday, 144 are in the Winnipeg Health region, while nine are in the Interlake-Eastern Health region, eight are in the Northern Health region, four are in the Prairie Mountain Health region and 19 are in the Southern Health region.
This brings the total number of confirmed cases in Manitoba to 4,532 since the start of the pandemic.
On Monday, 1,721 COVID-19 lab tests were completed.
