Manitoba is seeing a spike in COVID-19 cases, many of which are coming from one region with a lower population.

Dr. Brent Roussin says Monday's nearly one hundred new COVID-19 cases and the hundreds on the weekend are a clear indicator that Manitoba is in a fourth COVID-19 wave. 

"We know that COVID is increasing. We are entering our fourth wave now," Roussin says. "We need to diminish transmission chains because we are seeing people getting sick. We are seeing people getting to ICU. We are seeing our numbers climb once again."

Watching cases rise, the doctor says he is not ruling out reintroducing regional COVID-19 restrictions when needed.

"It is very clear COVID is going to be with us for many years."

Southern Health Sante Sud may only boast 17 per cent of Manitoba's population, but they regularly make up roughly half of all new COVID-19 cases. Roussin says he cannot give a test positivity rate due to fluctuation in this area, saying it does not give the "whole picture."

Out of Monday's 93 new COVID-19 cases, 46 come from Southern Health. Almost all (41) of the cases are in people who are unvaccinated. 

"And then what we are seeing too is our admissions to the hospital right now, more than half of people being admitted to ICU their first test related to COVID is on that day of admission," Roussin says. "If we don't do something to limit the transmission of this virus we are going to see significant strains on our healthcare system again."

Sixty-seven of Monday's new cases were in people who are not fully vaccinated.

Other new COVID cases include:

  • 25 in Winnipeg, with 10 not fully vaccinated
  • eight in Northern Health with six not fully vaccinated
  • seven in Prairie Mountain with four not fully vaccinated
  • seven in Interlake-Eastern with six not fully vaccinated

Test demands are up in other parts of Manitoba, totalling 2,480 on Sunday. Roussin says Manitoba continues to have the capacity to test and deliver results within 48 hours.

"We have been a bit concerned with these numbers for some time. We see what has been occurring in our neighbours to the west, we know we were certainly at risk of seeing that, and we know that despite relatively high vaccine uptake province-wide, we knew there were some pockets of relatively low vaccinated individuals and that put us at risk for a fourth wave and we are starting to see those trends essentialize now."

vaccine status 27(Government of Manitoba)

Manitoba's five-day COVID-19 test rate is 2.7 percent, up from Friday's rate of two per cent.

Over the weekend there were one hundred new cases on Saturday and 133 on Sunday. From Friday to Monday there were 366 new cases, with Winnipeg seeing 108 of those and Southern Health seeing 150 cases. After a data correction, there are 60,294 total confirmed cases in Manitoba.

 

Hospitalizations

There are 77 people in the hospital due to COVID-19, including 43 active cases. 

In intensive care, there are 19 patients with 14 of those having active cases.

 

The number of deaths is now at 1,209  after two deaths were reported Sunday: a male in his 40s from the Southern Health–Santé Sud health region and a male in his 60s from the Winnipeg health region.