COVID-19 hospitalizations climb to highest yet in 4th wave as 6 deaths, 494 cases reported over 3 days
CBC
Manitoba's COVID-19 outlook continues to worsen as Monday saw the province hit its single highest daily case count since June and the most COVID-19 patients in hospital so far during the fourth wave of the pandemic.
Public health officials announced 494 new COVID-19 cases and six deaths over the past three days, including 183 on Saturday. The last time numbers were higher was June 18, when there were 189 cases.
There were 155 cases identified on Sunday and 156 on Monday.
Hospitalizations have also increased, from 118 COVID-19 patients three days ago to 141 on Monday — the highest number yet in the fourth wave.
The number in intensive care units is up to 26. There were 24 ICU patients on Friday.
The provincial test positivity rate climbed from 4.7 per cent on Friday to 5.4 per cent on Monday.
The bulk of the 494 cases over the past three days are from Southern Health, the region with the lowest vaccination rates in the province and where only 15 per cent of the population lives.
The latest data continues to suggest that Manitoba's fourth wave case numbers and hospitalizations are being driven by people who aren't fully vaccinated.
Of 1,377 active cases, 57 per cent have not received a shot, while 37 per cent have received both. Six per cent are partly vaccinated.
A total of 112 of the 141 COVID-19 patients in hospital have active infections, and of those, 55 per cent haven't received a single dose. Thirty-nine per cent have received at least two, and five per cent have received one.
Meanwhile, among the 18 people in ICU who still have active COVID-19 infections (eight of the 26 people in ICU no longer have active COVID-19), 89 per cent have not received a dose and 11 per cent have received at least two.
The deaths reported Saturday include two women — one in her 70s and the other in her 80s — from the Prairie Mountain Health region, with the older woman linked to an outbreak at Benito Personal Care Home.
A man and a woman, both from Southern Health and in their 70s, also died Saturday.
A woman from Southern Health in her 80s died Sunday, as did a woman in her 80s from the Winnipeg health region.
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