As the province is reaching closer to 500 cases of COVID-19, the officials are announcing 17 new cases.

Three more individuals have recovered from COVID-19, with 351 individuals now recovered. There are currently 132 active cases of the virus.

There are now five more confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Winnipeg, two in the Southern Health region, and 10 in the Prairie Mountain Health region.

A total of 491 COVID-19 cases have been recorded in Manitoba since the beginning of the pandemic.

"We've been here before, and we know what to do," Roussin says, staying positive that Manitobans can lower the number of cases in the province.

Roussin is reminding residents of the fundamentals (washing hands, physical distancing) to prevent COVID-19 as community transmission is being detected in Western Manitoba.

Eight cases are connected to a business in Brandon, however, Roussin says each person has contracted the virus outside the workplace and their close contacts have been identified in the community, not the workplace.

"To be clear, there's no evidence of workplace transmission at this time," he says, adding the cases are currently self-isolating and contact tracing is underway.

"The company has gone beyond public health recommendations and is having a larger number of workers and contacts self-isolate. There's a deep clean of the facility since the cases were last at work. All cases would have worn PPE during the infectious period while at work, as well workers have been cohorted to reduce the risk."

A case related to a Tim Hortons on 18th Street in Brandon has also been identified. Roussin says the staff member worked during the infectious period but not while symptomatic. "This is very low risk of transmission."

Those who visited the location are being asked to self-monitor for symptoms for 14 days.

Numbers show 1,452 laboratory tests were completed on Thursday, bringing the total number of tests completed since early February to 96,999.

The province says the percentage of five-day positive cases is now at 1.1 per cent.