Latest cases of COVID-19 in Manitoba related to travel, health officials say

The latest cases of COVID-19 in Manitoba are related to out-of-province travel, public health officers say.

The twocases, identified on Thursday, are both men in their 20s from the Winnipeg health region. Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Brent Roussin said Friday that the men were in closecontactwith one another and travelled together.

He couldn't share details on where the men wentbut did say it was outside of Manitoba and they became symptomatic shortly after returning. Roussin doesn't believe they were in close contact with anyone outside of their household after returning.

He repeated that the biggest threat right now in Manitoba is the importation of the disease due to travel. Within the province, the number of new cases continue to stay flat.

There were no new cases announced on Friday.

The province's total number of cases since March remains at 294. Of those,273 people have recovered and 14 cases are active.

There is no one in hospital and the number of deaths remains at seven.

An additional 1,115 laboratory tests were done Thursday. This brings the total number of tests performed since early February to 42,306.

2nd wave worries

Despite Manitoba's low numbers, the virus is still here and there is a chance it could flare up, Roussin warned.

"With pandemics, with these types of viruses, in the past we often see that there's been more than one wave," he said, adding thatno one knows for certain when a second coronavirus wave might hit,or what it might look like.

"We are preparing for a second wave that could be in the fall, and could be at the same time as [seasonal] influenza. So that's why we'll get the message out now that this year, we're really going to be encouraging that flu shot."

WATCH | Full news conference on COVID-19 | May 29, 2020:

Manitoba government daily briefing on coronavirus: May 29

4 years ago

Duration 35:01

Provincial officials give update on COVID-19 outbreak: Friday, May 29, 2020.

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