Manitoba's COVID-19 deaths, hospitalizations down from week earlier, breaking trend of rising numbers

Manitoba reported fewer COVID-19 deaths and hospitalizations in its latest update than in the week prior, reversing a trend of increasing numbers.

The province's latest report,which was released Thursday and covers the week ofAug. 14-20, says12 more deaths havebeen added toManitoba's pandemic total, bringing that numberto 2,105.

That's a smaller increase than the 14 deaths province reported in last week's update, and the first time since mid-July that the number of deaths reported dropped week to week.

During the latest reporting period, 60 people were admitted to hospital with COVID-19, down from 79 the week before.

Of those, eight were admitted to intensive care units, down from 19 the previous week. One of thepatients admitted to ICU during the reporting period wasa child under the age of 10, according to the update.

Wastewater surveillance in Winnipeg also shows signs of decreasing COVID-19 activity in the city since late July, according to the province's report.

However, therate of Manitobans dying with COVID-19 continues to exceed the rate at this same point last year.

According to Manitoba Public Health's severe outcome data, 701 people have died in the province this year as of Aug. 20, compared to 489 at the same point last year.

That works out to a rate of 3.03 deaths per day in 2022, compared to 2.12 deaths per day in 2021.

The number of lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases in Manitoba was up fromthe previous week 473 for the week ending Aug. 20 compared to 455 the week before. Those numbers are considered a significantundercount of the true number of infections, due to limited access to polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, the only type of test recorded by public health.

The province's weekly test positivity rate was up slightly in the latest report to23.9 per cent, compared to 23.8 the week before.

There were six outbreaks reported five in long-term care homes and one at Winnipeg's Health Sciences Centre.