19 more deaths added to COVID-19 pandemic total in Manitoba

Manitoba has added 19 more COVID-19 deaths to its pandemic total in the latest provincial update, the highest jump in more than three months.

That's the biggest increase inmore than three months the total rose by 24 deaths the week of May 29 toJune 4.

The province'slatest report, which was released Thursday and covers the week of Sept. 4 to Sept. 10, says the total number of people who have died of COVID-19 during the pandemic is now 2,137, up from2,118 the previous week.

There was an increase ofthree deaths in last week's update.

A spokesperson from the province says COVID-19 data is dynamic, and the increase is due to adding "missed events" from the last reporting period.

Missed events will be included in later reports as the data becomes available, the spokesperson added.

During the latest reporting period, 65 people were admitted to hospital with COVID-19, down from 70 the week before.

Of those, 10 were admitted to intensive care units, down from 16 the previous week.

As of Sept. 8, wastewater surveillance data for Winnipeg indicated ongoing activity of COVID-19,with activity increasing in the last week of August, the report says.

The number of lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases in Manitoba is down slightlyfrom the previous week, with 342 for the week ending Sept. 10compared to 475 the week before. However, those numbers are believed to be a significant undercount of the true number of infections, due to limited access to polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, the only type of test recorded by Manitoba public health.

The province's weekly test positivity rate went down to 19.9 per cent, compared to 22.5the week before.