399 COVID-19 cases, 4 deaths reported in Manitoba over 3 days

There are 399 new COVID-19 cases and four deaths over three days in Manitoba, a provincial news release says.

There were 140 cases identifiedon Saturday, 102 on Sunday and 157 on Monday.

Of the 399 cases, 145 were in the Winnipeg health region, 119 were in the Southern Health region, 68 were in the Northern health region, 36 were in the Prairie Mountain Health region and 31 were in the Interlake-Eastern health region.

The four deaths over the three days includetwo women whose deaths were reported Saturday: one in her 90sfrom the Prairie Mountain Health Region and a woman in her 50s from the Interlake-Eastern health region.Both are linked to unspecified variants of concern.

A woman in her 100s from the Interlake-Eastern health region whose death is linked to an unspecified variant was reported Sunday. On Monday, the death of a man in his 80s from the Southern Health region was reported.

The total number of deaths caused by the disease is now 1,273. There are currently 1,499 active cases of COVID-19 and 62,991 people have recovered.

On Sunday, 2,589 lab tests were done.

Of the cases announced Monday, just over half were in people who haven't been fully vaccinated:

• 41 of 72new cases in Southern Health.
• 17 of 36 new cases in Winnipeg.
• 13 of 31 new cases in the Northern Health Region.
• Eight of 12 new cases in Prairie Mountain Health.
• Two of six new cases in Interlake-Eastern.

The provincial test positivity rate dropped slightly from 6.1 per cent on Friday to 5.9 per cent on Monday. In Winnipeg, the rate is 3.1 per cent.

There are 146 Manitobans in hospital with COVID-19, up one since Friday.

There are now 88 patients in intensive care units in the province, 31of them COVID-19 patients. Manitoba's pre-pandemic baseline capacity was 72 ICU beds.

A total of 111 of the 146 COVID-19 patients in hospital have active infections, and of those, 60haven't received a single dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. Forty-seven have received at least two, and four have received one.

Among the 24 people in ICU who still haveactive COVID-19 infections (seven of the 31 people in ICU no longer have active COVID-19), 21 have not received a dose and three have received at least two.

Delayed surgeries

There are 130,000 people waiting forsurgeries and diagnostic proceduresbecause of the pandemic,Doctors Manitoba has said.

"We want to turn this around and reorganize the health system so we don't have to cancel surgeries and diagnostic tests, but right now this is what we have to do," Health Minister Audrey Gordon said on Monday.

"As our cases climb, we need to ensure that our ICU has the capacity to care for individuals. I hope this is for a very, very short time."

A task force will be formed and given the primary goal of addressing the backlogafter the throne speechon Nov. 23, Gordon said.

A number of requests have also been made to service providers to help address the delay, she said.

"A lot of work is ongoing. This is a very difficult time for all Manitobans."

The province also announced a new COVID-19 outbreak,in the dialysis unit of the Portage District General Hospital in Portage la Prairie.

The outbreak in the kindergarten cohort in Brandon's River Heights School is nowover.