36 COVID-19 cases reported in Manitoba on Tuesday, lowest daily case count since March

Manitoba is reporting 36 new cases of COVID-19 and one deathon Tuesday, a provincial news release says.

The last time the daily case number was lower was on March 1, when the province reported 35 cases.

Of the new cases, 24 are in the Winnipeg health region, five are in the Interlake-Eastern health region, three are in the Southern Health region and there are two each in the Northern and Prairie Mountain health regions.

There are now 972 active cases, while 54,392 people have recovered from COVID-19.

A man in his 70s from the Southern Health region died, the release says.

To date, 1,152 people have died ofCOVID-19 in Manitoba.

There are now 155 COVID-19 patients in hospital, the province said, down one since Monday.

Of those, 36 patients are in intensive care units in Manitoba, down from 40 the day before. There are also six critically ill Manitobans in hospitals in Ontario.

Manitoba's five-day test positivity dropped to 5.9 per cent, from6.3 per cent on Monday. In Winnipeg, therate sank to 5.7per cent from 6.1 per cent the day before.

On Monday, 989 COVID-19 tests were done in Manitoba.

The province has discovered174 more cases of highly contagious coronavirus variants in the province since the provincelast updated the dashboard on Saturday. Of those, 89 new cases more than half are the delta variant, also known asB.1.617.2.

There are now 598 active cases of the coronavirus variants.

The latest pandemic updates comeafter the province reported 65 cases of COVID-19 and one death on Monday.

Dr. Marcia Anderson, the public health lead of theManitoba First Nations COVID-19 Pandemic Response Co-ordination Team, also unveiled data about how COVID-19 has impacted Black, Indigenous and people of colour living in Manitoba.

Data suggests certain ethnic groups were at much higher risk of contracting the virus and experiencing severe outcomes than white Manitobansbecause of lower income levels, higher rates of overcrowdedhousing and jobs with more contact with the public.

Anderson said thevaccinationcampaign for the duration of the pandemic and future campaigns should concentrateon areas where coverage is the lowest, with more community partnerships.