Manitoba reports 270 new COVID-19 cases, seven more deaths

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This article was published 17/11/2020 (1974 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A woman in her 30s is among seven deaths due to COVID-19 reported Tuesday in Manitoba, alongside 270 new infections and a record-high test positivity rate.

Chief provincial public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin said the province’s pandemic death toll has grown to 179.

“All of the deaths we announce here are tragic, but especially when we see a young person die of this virus. We all need to take that moment of pause,” Roussin said during a daily news briefing, adding there were “some underlying conditions” in the case.

According to the province, a woman in her 30s from the Interlake-Eastern health region; a Winnipeg woman in her 70s; a Winnipeg man in his 70s connected to an outbreak at Victoria General Hospital; two men in their 80s from the Southern Health region; and two Winnipeg women in their 90s connected to the outbreak at Saul & Claribel Simkin Centre have died from COVID-19.

Roussin reported 270 new infections provincewide — and cautioned against drawing any conclusions from the one-day dip in case counts — with the Winnipeg region driving the tally (119).

Southern Health reported 106 new cases, Interlake-Eastern had 21, Northern Health region listed 16, and Prairie Mountain added eight. On Monday, 3,126 COVID-19 swabs were processed by the province’s two laboratory facilities.

The test positivity rate is 13.3 per cent in Winnipeg; 13.6 across the province.

On Tuesday, 240 people were in hospital with the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, including 41 in intensive care.

Roussin said of those in hospital, 30 were under the age of 50 years old (nine in ICU).

“Age is typically the biggest risk factor for this. People over age 60 are quite at risk for adverse, for severe outcomes, and then certainly underlying medical conditions,” Roussin said.

“The risk here for younger people is certainly lower than people with underlying medical conditions or people over age 60, but when you start seeing hundreds and hundreds of cases a day… eventually, we’re going to see less common things occur,” he said. “No one is immune from this virus. No one is immune from a severe outcome from this virus.”

New outbreaks were declared at personal care homes throughout the province, including: Bridgepark Manor (Steinbach), Southeast Personal Care Home (Winnipeg), Fairview Personal Care Home (Brandon) and Winnipegosis Personal Care Home (Winnipegosis).

The province has also declared an outbreak at Union Gospel Mission in Winnipeg.

According to data provided by the province Tuesday, current outbreaks at care homes throughout Manitoba have generated more than 690 cases, including 462 infections in residents, and 85 deaths.

The most severe are in Winnipeg: at Maples, which as of Tuesday had 207 cases (143 residents, 64 staff, 40 deaths), and Parkview Place, which had 158 cases (117 residents, 41 staff, 25 deaths).

St. Norbert Personal Care Home is reporting 33 infections (22 residents); Golden Links Lodge (Winnipeg) has 37 cases, including 31 residents; and Rest Haven Care Home (Steinbach) has 25 infections, including 14 residents.

“We can act now, but we got to act together. We have to protect ourselves, protect the people around us, protect our health-care workers, protect the most vulnerable people in our society,” Roussin said.

“If we stay home, limit our contacts, socialize only with members of our household, we’re going to start seeing these numbers come back around.”

Roussin said he is pondering changes to public health orders to cut down on crowds gathering at retail outlets that remain open selling a limited amount of essential products while going against the “spirit” of the order and promised enforcement of capacity rules.

“We’ve seen a number of advertisements from stores here in Manitoba about big, in-person, sales, on Black Friday (Nov. 27),” Roussin said. “Talking about lining up to get in, talking about all the big sales — so I think I want to be really clear here, with the numbers, this is irresponsible.

“We can’t accept this. We’re in code red… We have people dying every day. We have our health-care workers telling us that our hospitals are reaching their limits. This isn’t the time for having a large, in-person sale for non-essential goods and services.”

On Tuesday, the province also said a block of COVID-19 test appointments will be reserved for police, paramedics and front-line health-care providers. A limited number of slots will be set aside in Winnipeg at 2735 Pembina Hwy. and 604 St. Mary’s Rd.

The province is also opening a drive-up testing site Friday in the parking lot of the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service training academy (2546 McPhillips St.).

The site will be staffed by licensed WFPS paramedics not currently working in the field and is expected to handle 40 to 60 tests per day, specifically for police officers, firefighters, paramedics and emergency communications personnel.

— with files from Kevin Rollason

danielle.dasilva@freepress.mb.ca