18th death at Parkview Place, 100 new cases identified

The chief provincial public health officer strongly encourages Manitobans to reduce the number of close contacts outside their household, and avoid closed-in or crowded spaces.

Public health officials advise one death due to COVID-19 has been reported from the Winnipeg region, a female in her 80s related to the outbreak at Parkview Place.

Previously, the largest such increase came October 14, when 173 cases were reported.

A frustrated Premier Brian Pallister is telling people who are still socializing in groups to "grow up and stop going out there and giving people COVID-19".

St. Boniface suspended in-person visits to most patients indefinitely on Sunday as it tries to get a series of outbreaks under control. Although they did not have symptoms they were in their infectious period.

The province's 58th pandemic death is a resident who was receiving care at Parkview Place long-term care home in downtown Winnipeg.

The woman in her 60s is the 19th such fatality associated with the facility.

Since the outbreak was declared at the facility in mid-September, 29 staff members have been infected with the virus.

Of Tuesday's newly reported cases, 144 are from the Winnipeg health region, 19 are in the Southern Health region, four are in Prairie Mountain Health region, eight are from the Northern health region, and nine were reported in the Interlake-Eastern health region. However, one case was removed due to a data error.

The current five-day COVID-19 test positivity rate is 7.5 per cent and 184 new cases of the virus have been identified as of 9:30 a.m. This means the net new number of cases is 183, which brings the total number of lab-confirmed cases in Manitoba to 4,532.

There are now 83 people in hospital, including 15 people in intensive care. According to Manitoba Public Health, the total number of completed tests since early February is 242,787. There are now more active cases in Manitoba than people who have recovered from COVID-19, which is at 2,236.

All other possible exposure locations are listed on the province's website.

The public may have been exposed to the virus at a funeral in Cross Lake, officials said, after an individual attended the October 18 gathering while infectious.