COVID-19 hospitalizations, ICU admissions climb in Manitoba

Manitoba saw an increase week-over-week in COVID-19 cases, including those with severe outcomes leading to intensive care admissions.

There were 13 people admitted to intensive care units in Manitoba due to severe outcomes from COVID-19 from Sept. 25 to Oct. 1, according to the province's latestweekly surveillancereport, released Thursday.

That's an increase over the previous week, which saw 11 ICU admissions.

As well, 77 peoplewere admitted to hospital with COVID-19 symptoms according to the latest data, which is an increase from the 73 the previous week.

The number of COVID-related deaths increased by 17 for the second consecutive week, raising the total number of people who have died from the virusduring the pandemic to 2,177.

The number of lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases in the province for the most recent surveillance week is also up from the previous week, with 305 as opposed to 283.

Those numbers are believed to be a significant undercount of the true number of infections, due to limited access to polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, the only type of test recorded by Manitoba Public Health.

The province'svolume of lab tests slightly increased, to an average of 303 per day from 302, and the weekly test positivity rateincreased from 22.2 per cent to 23.4.

Federal wastewater surveillance data for Winnipeg and Brandonindicatesongoing activity of COVID-19 but at a slightly lower level from most of September.

The province's next COVID-19 surveillancereportisscheduled for Oct.13.