Manitoba hits lowest test positivity rate since October with 23 new COVID-19 cases

Manitoba reported 23 new cases of COVID-19 and and no new deaths from the illness on Tuesday.

The province's five-day test positivity rate is 2.8 per cent, down from three per cent on Monday, the province said in a news release. That's the lowest the provincial rate has been since Oct. 7 of last year, when itwas 2.4 per cent.

In Winnipeg, the positivityrate is 1.4 per cent, down from 1.8per cent on Monday. That's also the lowest number since last October, when the province started including the Winnipeg test positivity rate in its daily updates.

There are currently498 active cases of the illness in Manitoba.

Of the 23 new cases, nine are in the Winnipeg health region, six are in the Southern Health region, four are in the Interlake-Eastern health region, two are in the Prairie Mountain Health region, and two are in the Northern Health Region.

There are currently 107 Manitobans in hospital due to COVID-19, down from 110 on Monday. The number of COVID-19 patients in intensive care as of Tuesday is27, up by one.

A total of1,070 lab tests were completed on Monday.

As of Tuesday, 78.9 per centof Manitobans age12 and up have hadat least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 67.1 per cent have had two, according to the province's vaccination dashboard.

Including those announced Tuesday,there have been atotal 57,476 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Manitoba since the start of the pandemic. Four cases that had been previously reported as positive were removed from the total due to data corrections, the province said in its news release.

There have been 1,172 deaths from the illness in Manitoba.

Tuesday's update came about an hour later than usual due to technical issues, the province said in a tweet.