Manitoba public health reported 947 new cases of COVID-19 this afternoon bringing the five day test positivity rate to 24.2 percent.  Of the new cases 667 are in Winnipeg with lower numbers in other regions including only eight in the Northern region where there are 378 active cases.  Of the total 77,485 confirmed cases in the province 7488 cases are active, 68,613 people have recovered and 183 are in hospital with 29 in Intensive care.

Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Brent Roussin noted the numbers reported are an under estimation due to a backlog in test results with a wait time of four days or maybe more. He points out we know that Omicron is going to have an impact on our health care system, we can see in other jurisdictions the amount of admissions are increasing over time as case numbers increase and that’s going to occur here too so we need to be prepared for that, we need to reduce the amount of contacts we have quite significantly in order to protect the health care system.

Roussin added they are carefully watching case numbers and further restrictions could be coming.

Public health reports an outbreak has been declared at the Northern Spirit Manor personal care home in Thompson.