Manitoba reports 49 new COVID-19 cases, mostly among people not fully vaccinated

Manitoba reported 49 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, more than 80 per cent of them among people not fully vaccinated against the illness.

Of those infections, 31 areamong people not vaccinated at all while another nine are among people who are only partly immunized,the province's online vaccine dashboard says.

Two more deaths linked to the illness were also posted on Wednesday. While details have not been released, the number of deaths connected to more contagious coronavirus variants also rose by two, the province's online variant dashboard says.

That dashboard also shows104 newly identified cases of more infectious coronavirus variants:100 morein theunspecified category, three more linked to the alpha variant and one more connected to the delta strain.

The deaths bring Manitoba's total to 1,203. More details, including the ages, sexes and health regions of those who died, are expected Thursday in the province's next COVID-19 news release.

Most of the new cases reported Wednesday are split between the Winnipeg health region, which has 20, and the much more sparsely populated Southern Health region, which has 17, the province's online coronavirus dashboard says.

The rest are spread among the Interlake-Eastern and Northern health regions, with five new cases each, and the Prairie Mountain Health region, with two new infections.

Manitoba's five-day test positivity rate dropped to 2.9 per cent, the dashboard says, down from 3.2.There were 2,364 more COVID-19 tests done in the province on Tuesday.

No fully vaccinated active cases in ICU

There are now 69 people in Manitoba hospitals after getting COVID-19, including 15 in intensive care, the dashboard says. Both numbers are up one since Tuesday.

Among those in hospital, 29 are still considered to have active cases of the illness 86 per cent of whom either only have protection from one dose or aren't immunized at all, the vaccine dashboard says.

In intensive care units, seven patients are considered to have active COVID-19 cases. None of them have been fully vaccinated, the dashboard says.

The number of people in Manitoba ICUs remains well above the province's pre-pandemic capacity of 72. As of midnight, there wasa total of 91 people in intensive care, including those with COVID-19 and those there for other reasons,a Shared Health spokesperson said.

Most of Manitoba's 584 active COVID-19 cases 70 per cent are also among people not fully vaccinated against the illness.

The proportion of vaccinated eligible Manitobans rose slightly on Wednesday. For those with at least one shot, the number now sits at 83.9 per cent, while for those fully immunized, it's now78.9 per cent.

In total,57,679 people have been deemed recovered after testing positive for COVID-19.