For 2nd straight day, Manitoba reports 61 new cases of COVID-19

The province reported 61 new cases of COVID-19 in its daily bulletin Tuesday matching Monday's number of new cases.

For the second day in a row, the province officially announced no new deaths in its daily COVID-19 update. However, the death of a Manitoba woman in her 50s beingtreated in an Ontario intensive care ward was reported later in the day.

Manitoba Shared Health says the woman's death will be reflected in official statistics in the coming days.

The Winnipeg health region reported 29 new cases Tuesday, while theNorthern Health Region has 15, Southern Health has 11 and Interlake-Eastern has six. There are no new cases in the Prairie Mountain Health region.

There are now 1,408 active cases of COVID-19, down from more than 4,000 active cases at the beginning of the month.

Just over half of the active cases832areconnected with more contagious coronavirus variants, the province'sonline variant dashboardsays.

The bulk of them 610are the B.1.1.7, or alpha variant, first discovered in the U.K. There are seven active cases of the B.617.2 or delta variant, which is believed tobe even more contagious than other variants of concern.

As of Tuesday,53,550 people have recovered from the coronavirus.

Manitoba's five-day test positivity rose slightly to 6.3 per cent, from 6.2 per cent on Monday. In Winnipeg, the rate held steady at 5.8 per cent.

On Monday, 1,040 COVID-19 tests were done in Manitoba.

There are now 181 COVID-19 patients in hospital, the province said, down 13 from the day before.

Of those, 49 patients are in intensive care units in Manitoba. There are also 10 Manitobans in ICUs in Ontario.

Winnipeg outbreaks over

Outbreaks atSeven Oaks General Hospital 3U4-7 and at the Saul and Claribel Simkin Centre in Winnipeg are now over.

There have been a number of exposures to COVID-19 on flights in and out of Winnipeg in June. The province has posted all of the details on its website.

As of Tuesday, 73.2 per cent of Manitobans age 12 or older have a first vaccine dose, theprovince's vaccination dashboardsays, while 39.8 per cent have two doses.

It's the second day in a row when no COVID-19 deaths have been announced, with yesterday beingthe first time in a month that no deaths were reported. To date, 1,139 Manitobans have died of COVID-19.

The province also reported 61 new cases on Monday, the lowest daily case number since early April.

Even so, Chief Provincial Public Health Officer Dr. Brent Roussin warned Manitobans to be cautious because COVID-19 still poses athreat.