44 new COVID-19 cases, no deaths reported in Manitoba

There are 44 new COVID-19 cases in Manitoba on Friday and no additional deaths linked to the illness, the province's online dashboard says.

Manitoba's five-day test positivity rate rose slightly to 2.1 per cent from 1.9 on Thursday, the dashboard says.

There are now 62 people hospitalized with the illness in the province, down from 69 on Thursday. That includes 15 in intensive care, the dashboard says, an increase of one.

Manitoba now only puts out COVID-19 news releases on Mondays and Thursdays, which means updates on other weekdays now only come from its online dashboard, which has less information than the news releases.

Details like Winnipeg's test positivity rate which sat at 1.4 per cent on Thursday won't be updated again until after the weekend.

The new cases brings Manitoba's seven-day average back up slightly to just below 30.

The number of deaths linked to the illness in Manitoba remains 1,188.

Manitoba also reported five newly identified cases of more contagious coronavirus variants, the province's online variant dashboard says.

The number of cases linked to unspecified variants rose by four while the number linked to the beta variant associated with South Africa increased by one.

Meanwhile, the proportion of eligible Manitobanswho are vaccinated against COVID-19 also grew slightly. The percentage of those with at least one dose now sits at 81.1 per cent, while 75 per cent now have both doses.

That meansManitoba has reached its final vaccine milestone for reopening, which the province aimed to hit by Sept. 6 though it already loosened or removed most restrictions earlier this month, before achieving the goal.

Another 1,812 COVID-19 tests were completed in Manitoba on Thursday, the dashboard says.

There are now 303 active cases of the illness in the province and 56,685 people have been deemed recovered after getting COVID-19, the dashboard says.