88 new COVID-19 cases, 1 death reported in Manitoba

There are 88 new COVID-19 cases and an additional death reported in Manitoba on Friday.

Among the latest cases, 53 are in unvaccinated people, while 12 people were partly vaccinated and 23 were fully vaccinated.

While some double-dosed people aregetting COVID-19, most are not getting seriously ill.

Only fiveper centof hospitalized Manitobanswith active COVID-19 are fully vaccinatedand none of them are intensive care patients, according todatafrom the province's COVID-19 dashboard.

TheSouthern Health region, which hasthe lowest vaccine uptake in the province, once again led the way with 30 of the latest cases, followed closely by theWinnipeg health region, with 26.

ThePrairie Mountain Health region andInterlake-Eastern health region both have 14, while theNorthern Health Region has four.

The latest data alsoshows a jump in hospitalizations. There were 62 people in hospital due to the coronavirus on Thursday, but on Friday there are7237 with active symptoms and 35 who are no longer infectious.

Among those in hospital, 13 people are in intensive care, an increase of one since Thursday.

Among the active cases in hospital, 73 per cent of the people are unvaccinated and 22 per cent were only partly vaccinated. Of those in ICU,86 per cent are unvaccinated and the other 14 per cent were only partly vaccinated.

The number of people in Manitoba ICUs remains well above the province's pre-pandemic capacity of 72. As of midnight, there were 89 people (both COVID and non-COVID patients) in intensive care, a Shared Health spokesperson said in an email.

The Manitoba government no longer holds news conferences or sends news releases on Fridays to update case numbers. News releases are sent on Mondays and Thursdays.

Consequently, no information about the latest death sex, age or health region is available.

The total number of deaths in Manitoba due to COVID-19 is now 1,203,including 201 linked to coronavirus variants.

The province's five-day test positivity rate is2.6 per cent, up slightly from 2.5 per cent on Thursday. No new information about the Winnipeg test positivity rate is provided on the COVID-19 dashboard. That rate was 1.2 per cent on Thursday.

There were2,668 laboratory tests completed Thursday, bringing the total number since early February 2020 to 962,409.

Manitoba also reported 63 more COVID-19 cases have been linked tocoronavirus variants of concern.

All but one are still listed as unspecified variants on the province's online variant dashboard. The lone one that has been newly classified is listed as belonging to the delta or B.1.617.2 strain.

Manitoba has now recorded 1,314 cases of delta.

Of Manitoba's 629 currently active COVID-19 cases, 390 have been identified as one of the more contagious strains.