First Brazillian variant of concern discovered, 153 new COVID cases in Manitoba

A woman in her 30s with COVID-19 from the Interlake-Eastern health region has died.

The province says a case of the P1 variant, first identified in Brazil, has been identified in Manitoba. This is affecting one person in the Interlake–Eastern health region. A spokesperson for the province says the woman in her 30s from the same region who died was not a variant of concern case.

Previously Premier Brian Pallister addressed his concerns over P1, as it is known to spread faster, is more deadly, and can reinfect people who previously contracted the original COVID-19 strain.

In total, there are 153 new COVID-19 cases in Manitoba. New cases include:

• 10 cases in the Interlake-Eastern health region
• 57 cases in the Northern health region
• seven cases in the Prairie Mountain Health region
• six cases in the Southern Health–Santé Sud health region
• 73 cases in the Winnipeg health region

There are 1,528 active cases of COVID-19 in Manitoba and 33,205 people have recovered after the province removed four cases due to a data correction.

The total number of discovered variant of concern cases is now at 647, an increase of 87 cases since Wednesday. There are 288 recovered COVID-19 variants of concern cases.

Parkview Place Long Term Personal Care Home is now an outbreak site, being moved to Critical (Red) level on the #RestartMB Pandemic Response System.

In hospital there are 62 people with active cases of COVID-19, including 16 in intensive care. There are 75 in hospital requiring critical care after no longer being infected with the virus, including 19 in critical care. 

Since February of 2020,  613,701 COVID-19 tests have been completed, including Wednesday's 2,648 additional tests.