Manitoba public health reported 59 new cases of COVID-19 this afternoon bringing the five day test positivity rate to 3.9 percent.  They also reported two additional deaths with one each in the Northern and Southern health regions.  Of the new cases 32 are in the Winnipeg region and 16 in Northern health with single digits in other regions. With seven cases removed due to a data correction the total number of reported cases is 34,174 with 1179 cases active, 32,058 individuals have recovered and 148 are in hospital with 30 in intensive care. They also reported three new screened or sequenced cases of variants of concern have been detected all in the Winnipeg health region bringing the total number of variant cases to 270.

Meanwhile Saskatchewan health reported 199 new cases bringing the seven day average of new cases to 206.  Of the new cases 115 are in Regina, 28 in South East and 14 in Saskatoon with lower numbers in other zones including three in Far North East.  Of the total 33,789 reported cases 1949 are considered active, 31,404 people have recovered and 193 are in hospital with 34 in intensive care.  As of Thursday a total of 1682 variants of concern have been identified by screening with the largest number in Regina with 1348, south central with 129, South east with 109 and Saskatoon with 53.  The province is expanding vaccine eligibility to people 58 and older as of tomorrow.