Northern Manitoba COVID-19 surge continues, as region reports more than half of province's 198 new cases

Manitoba reported 198 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday,as officials announced upcoming adjustments to the province's pandemic restrictions.

Those rule changes, which will include allowingmost Manitobans to have two designated people over forvisits as of Saturday, won't apply to the hard-hit north,Premier Brian Pallister and Chief Provincial Public Health Officer Dr. Brent Roussin said at a news conference.

That part of the province reported 105 cases more than half of the province's new infections on Thursday.

Since Jan. 11, confirmed cases in the Northern Health Region have jumped by 754, as several communities grapple with outbreaks.

That includes Garden Hill First Nation, where the Canadian Armed Forces arrived on Wednesday to help fight a spike in infections that had reached 290 active cases as of Tuesday.

While the jumpin cases in the north is in part due to these types of "concerning" outbreaks, Roussin said there are cases dispersed throughout the region. That's why strict rules will stay in place for all of northern Manitoba, though that could be revisited later.

"For this iteration, it's our first return to a more regionalized approach to our public health orders for quite some time," he said.

"We are providing some more of that targeting that we tried to do early on in the fall. And so right now, we're going to include the entire north, but watch things quite closely."

Winnipeg and several nearby communities moved to the highest level on the province's pandemic response system on Nov. 2, with the rest of the province following 10 days later.

Those rules tightened even more on Nov. 20, when the province banned virtually all household visitors and the sale of non-essential items in stores.

WATCH | Why Dr. Brent Roussin says 'cautious approach' to reopening needed:

Frustrations over relaxed Manitoba COVID-19 rules understandable, says province's top doctor

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Manitoba Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Brent Roussin says he understands Manitobans might be frustrated they can't have more people over than the two designated individuals allowed come Saturday, and he similarly recognizes businesses not yet allowed to open may feel upset they aren't included in the new rules.

Manitoba reported five more deaths linked to COVID-19 on Thursday, including two people in their 60s: a woman from the Northern Health Region and a man fromthe Southern Health area, Roussin said.

The latest deaths in the province, which bring Manitoba's total to 793, also include three linked to outbreaks across Manitoba.

Two men in their 80s connected to Winnipeg's Poseidon Care Centre and the McCreary/Alonsa Health Centre and a woman in her 90s linked to Winkler's Salem Home have also died.

The five-day test positivity rate dropped again in Winnipeg and the province at large. Manitoba's rate is now 9.2 per cent, Roussin said,which is the lowest since Nov. 8, when the same rate was reported.Winnipeg's rate is down to 6.6 per cent, the lowest it's been since October.

The number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 is also down slightly. There are now 268 people in hospital, down from 273 on Wednesday. Thirty-four of those people are in intensive care, the province said in a news release, which is down from 36 on Wednesday.

The remaining new cases on Thursday are split between the Winnipeg health region (54), the Prairie Mountain Health region (17), the Southern Health region (13) and the Interlake-Eastern health region (nine), the release says.

Two previously announced cases were removed from Manitoba's total on Thursday because of a data correction, the release says. That brings the total number of confirmed cases in the province to 28,089.

Of those, 24,091 have been deemed recovered, while 3,205 cases are still considered active, though health officials have said that number is inflated by a data entry backlog. There were 2,269 COVID-19 tests done in Manitoba on Wednesday, which brings the total number of swabs done in the province since February to 459,134.

WATCH | Full news conference on COVID-19 | Jan. 21, 2021:

Manitoba government daily briefing on coronavirus: Jan. 21

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Provincial officials give update on COVID-19 outbreak: Thursday, January 21, 2021.