COVID-19 and flu activity in Manitoba drops again

COVID-19 and influenza activity is on a steady decline in Manitoba, with hospital admissions and new cases dropping significantly for the third straight week.

There were seven people hospitalizedfor COVID-19 from Jan. 15-21,the latest provincial surveillance datasays. The previous reporting week had 28 hospitalizations.

Admissions to intensive care units, due to severe cases, also went down from six to three in that same span.

The total number of deaths related to the virus increased by 15 in the most recent surveillance report, compared to nine the previous weekand 25 the week before that.

There were just 59 new COVID-19 cases detected in the latest report, a more than 50 per cent decline from the 122 in theJan. 814 report. Those numbers, though, are considered significant undercounts due to limited testing offered by Public Health. The province does not track results from home tests.

The weekly test positivity rate for COVID-19 went down to 11.3 per cent from 12.3 per cent in the previous report.

Flu test positivity falls below 1%

As forInfluenza A, the primary flu strain this season, the number of cases detected in the current surveillance week is 10, versus 18 the prior week.

A total of two people were admitted to hospital for flu symptoms, with no ICU cases, which is identical to the previous week. Two additional deaths were attributed to the flu in the report for Jan. 15-21, compared to one the previous week.

The current weekly test positivity for Influenza A is 0.8 per cent, whereas it was 1.9per cent a week ago.

The national rate is 1.3 per cent.

Other respiratory viruses continue to circulate as well, but the test positivity rate forand detection ofrespiratory syncytial virus (RSV) have both decreased as well.

The number of detected RSV cases in the latest report is 105 (down from 131) and the test positivity rate is 8.3 per cent (down from 8.7).

Wastewater surveillance dataindicates sustained activity of COVID-19 in Winnipeg and Brandon but at lower levels.

The next reporting date is Feb. 3.