Woman in her 20s dies of COVID-19; 71 new cases in Manitoba Saturday

Manitoba has71more cases of COVID-19 and one more persona woman in her 20s from the Winnipeg health regionhasdied from the illness, the province announced Saturday.

The woman's death is thesecond involving a personin her 20s in the province this week.

The province's total number of deaths related to the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 is now 905.

More than half of Saturday's new cases 45 are in the Northern Health region.

There are 18 cases in the Winnipeg health region, five in the Southern Health region, three in the Interlake-Eastern health region and none in the Prairie Mountain Health region.

The five-day test positivity rate a rolling average of the number of tests that come back positiveis 3.1 per cent in Manitoba, up marginally from three per cent on Friday. The rate is2.2 per cent in Winnipeg, down from 2.4 per cent.

There are 158 people in the hospital with COVID-19, down from 171 the day before, with 23in intensive care units.

The number of cases involving coronavirus variants of concernin the province remains at nine. That includes one case ofB1351 the coronavirus variantfirst identified in South Africaannounced Friday.The case was found in the Winnipeg region.

There are 1,114 active cases and 30,151 individuals who have recovered from COVID-19, according to the province.

Its release says 1,670 tests were completed on Friday, bringing the total number of lab tests completed since early February 2020 to 535,692.

Saturday's update comes after Manitoba reported54casesand onedeath from COVID-19 on Friday.

Health officials also said Friday that every eligible Manitoban could get a first doseof a coronavirus vaccine by May 18, after the province decided to delay second doses.

That timeline assumes vaccineshipments arrive steadily throughout the second quarter.