Manitoba public health announced 71 new cases of COVID-19 this afternoon bringing the five day test positivity rate to 3.8 percent. They also reported one additional death in the Winnipeg region.  Of the new cases 38 are in the Winnipeg region and 24 in the Northern health region with single digits in other regions. They also announced 17 new screened or sequenced cases of variants of concern have been detected with four in the Southern health region and 13 from the Winnipeg region bringing the total to 267 cases in the province.

Medical Lead for the Manitoba Vaccine Implementation Task Force Dr. Joss Reimer says they are looking into the Pfizer announcement regarding using its vaccine in children as young as 12.  She explains at the moment Pfizer is only approved for people over 16 with the other vaccines only being approved for people who are over 18 however if Health Canada were to approve it in younger populations certainly they would start to look at how they can start to roll out a campaign for younger Manitobans as well.

Of the total 34,122 reported COVID cases 1181 are considered active and 32,006 individuals have recovered.