130 new COVID-19 cases, 3 deaths reported in Manitoba Friday

Manitoba public health officials announced 130 new COVID-19 cases and three deaths Friday.

That brings the number of people who have died from the illness in the province to 1,256.

The number of people in hospital with COVID-19 is up again, to 118 patients on Friday. That includes 24 people in intensive care.

The current five-day test positivity rate is 4.7 per cent, down slightly compared to Thursday.

There is no information available about the age or sex of the three people who died. The Manitoba government no longer holds news conferences or sends news releases on Fridays to update case numbers, although some figures are available online.

Highest number of cases in Southern Health

The Southern Health region, which has about 15 per cent of the province's population,has close to half of the new cases Friday, with 64.

The Winnipeg region has the next highest number with 35, followed by the Northern Health Region with 12, the Prairie Mountain Health region with 11, and the Interlake-Eastern health region with eight.

Theseven-day average daily case count in Manitoba isnow at 125, down slightly from the day before but still among the highest the province has had since June.

For the first time Friday, the province also released data on its website showing test positivity rates and test volume by health region.

It shows Southern Health, with a14.3 per cent test positivity rate, outpacing all other regions.

The province says it will release this data biweekly going forward.

Of the new cases announced Friday, 80 were in people who were not vaccinated at all, sevenwere in people only partly vaccinatedand 43were in fully vaccinated people.

Among people hospitalized with active cases of COVID-19, 66per cent are unvaccinated, six per cent are partly vaccinatedand 28per cent are fully vaccinated.

As for patients in intensive care units with active COVID-19 symptoms, 95 per cent are not vaccinated and five per cent are fully vaccinated.

As of Friday, 87.1 per cent of eligible Manitobans have received one dose of a coronavirus vaccine and 84 per cent have had both, theprovincial vaccine dashboardsays.

The province also said another 138 cases have beenfound to bemore infectious variants of concern.

There were three more listed as theB.1.617.2or deltavariant, while the rest of the increase was unspecified.