153 new COVID-19 cases, 1 death reported in Manitoba Friday

There are 153 new COVID-19 cases and one death in Manitoba on Friday, the province's coronavirus data site says.

The Winnipeg and Southern Health regions had more than two-thirds of the new cases reported Friday, with 52 and 51 new cases, respectively.

There are also 25 new cases in the Northern Health region, 18 in the Prairie Mountain Health regionand seven in the Interlake-Eastern Health region.

There were 88 casesin people not vaccinated, 10 in people only partly vaccinatedand 55 in people who are fully vaccinated.

As of Friday, 85.2 per cent of Manitobans born in 2009 or earlier have two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, while 87.7 per cent have one dose. Manitoba has started vaccinating children age five to 12 but the vaccination data online does not indicate how many younger Manitobanshave gotten their shots.

There have now been 1,305 deaths from COVID-19 in Manitoba. Details such as the age and sex of the most recent deathare not released via the online dashboard. That information is expected in a news bulletin Monday.

The five-day test positivity rate in the province is now 5.4 per cent, down 0.1 per centfrom Thursday.

There are 134 people in hospital with COVID-19, down two patients since Thursday. That includes 24 in intensive care.

Currently, 53per cent of people in hospital with active COVID-19 are unvaccinated, fourper cent are partly vaccinated and 43 per cent are fully vaccinated.

In the intensive care units, 82per cent of active COVID-19 cases are unvaccinated and 18per cent are fully vaccinated.

As well, 130 more COVID-19 cases have now been linked tounspecified coronavirus variants of concern, according tothe province's variant dashboard.

After Friday, the province will stop routinely providing information on how many COVID-19 cases are linked to coronavirus variants because nearly all cases in Manitoba now stem from the highly contagious delta variant.

Starting next week,the province will issue COVID-19 bulletins that include vaccine updates on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.