54 new COVID-19 cases, 1 death in Manitoba on Thursday

Manitoba has 54 new confirmed COVID-19 cases and one more person has died of the illness caused by the novel coronavirus, health officials reportThursday.

A man in his 80s from the Winnipeg health region died. His case waslinked to the delta, orB.1.617.2, coronavirus variant.

This latest death brings the total pandemic death toll in Manitoba to 1,199.

The provincial test positivity rate dropped to 2.6 per cent on Thursday from 2.8 on Wednesday. In Winnipeg, the rate is 1.4 per cent.

Of the new cases announced Thursday, 35 were people who were not fully vaccinated.

In the Winnipeg Health region, 10 of the 21 new cases had not been fully vaccinated.

Southern Health had 16 new cases, including 12not fully vaccinated.

There were eight cases in the Interlake-Eastern Health region, seven of them not fully vaccinated.

The Northern HealthRegion had seven new cases, four not fully vaccinated.

And Prairie Mountain Health had two cases, both not fully vaccinated.

There are currently 456 active cases in Manitoba, up from 438 on Wednesday.

Manitoba has 77 people in hospital due to COVID-19, three more than on Wednesday. Of those, 16 are in intensive care,one more than the day before.

Labs in Manitoba completed 2,386 COVID-19 tests on Wednesday.

A total of54 more COVID-19 cases have now beenlinked to more contagious coronavirus variants of concern. The variant is so far unspecified in all of those cases.

The province also announced Thursday it will extendits pandemic sick leave program to Oct. 23. The program, which gives employers $600 per employee for up to five full days of COVID-19 related sick leave, was originally set to expire Sept. 25.

The province also provided an update on pandemic enforcement Thursday. Duringthe weeks of Aug. 23 to Sept. 5, the province handed out a total of 56 warnings and three tickets for violations of pandemic health orders.

These include one individual fine of $1,296, a $5,000 fine to a business and one $8,550 fine to a person for violating the federal Quarantine Act.