Manitoba Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Brent Roussin announced 445 new cases of COVID-19 this afternoon.  He also announced 14 additional deaths ranging in age from their 50s to 100s with 11in the Winnipeg region, two in Southern health and one in Interlake Eastern region.  Roussin says COVID-19 is having an impact on First Nations Communities both urban and rural. He reported in October we had no COVID-19 fatalities in our First Nations people now more than one in ten of daily deaths are in First Nations people, in October one in ten of the cases were in First Nations now it’s more than three in ten and about half of the hospitalizations are First Nations people.

Roussin adds these numbers and others across the province indicate the need to continue to be on our guard over the Christmas season as it’s critical to bring these numbers down.  Of the new cases 193 are in Winnipeg and 136 in the Northern Heath region with about one hundred of them in Shamattawa with lower numbers in other regions with total reported cases at 20,392.