Manitoba reports jump in COVID-19 deaths, hospitalizations as case counts continue precipitous climb

Manitoba reported a jump in deaths and hospitalizations linked to COVID-19 on Thursday, as case counts continue to skyrocket in the province.

Six more people have died after contracting the illness, two each in the Interlake-Eastern, Southern and Winnipeg health regions, the province's online coronavirus dashboard says.

Meanwhile, there are 11 more people in hospital with the illness, for a total of 263, the dashboard says.

Of those patients, 33 are in intensive care — up three since Wednesday. Those patients make up just over one-third of the 95 ICU patients in Manitoba as of midnight, said a spokesperson for Shared Health, which oversees health-care delivery in the province.

Manitoba also reported a record 2,548 new confirmed cases of the illness on Thursday, the dashboard says.

But that number likely only represents a fraction of infections, as the highly contagious Omicron coronavirus variant has caused a spike in cases that's overwhelmed the province's testing capacity.

That means daily case counts are no longer the most accurate reflection of the impact of COVID-19 in the province, because many cases aren't getting reported.

Dr. Jazz Atwal, Manitoba's deputy chief public health officer, said Wednesday that the true number of cases in the province is likely as high as eight to 10 times what's reported each day.

Manitoba's five-day test positivity rate climbed to 43.5 per cent on Thursday, up from 40.3 per cent on Wednesday.

There were 6,162 tests completed.