1 new death, 181 more COVID-19 cases in Manitoba over last 2 days

Manitoba reports 181 more COVID-19 cases over the past two days as well as a possible exposure to a more contagious coronavirus variant on board a flight that landed in Winnipeg, the provincesays on their website.

There was no COVID-19 update on Good Friday.

Of the new cases, most of the new cases are in theWinnipeg health region 87 and theNorthern health region 70. There are also 19 cases in the Prairie Mountain Health region, four in the Southern Health region and one in the Interlake-Eastern health region.

A woman in her 60sfrom the Winnipeg health region hasdied, the news release said.

That brings the total number of deaths due to COVID-19 to 938.

There are now 142 COVID-19 patients in hospital, down by six from Thursday. That includes 29 people in intensive care.

Manitoba's five-day test positivity rate is now 4.4 per cent, upfrom 3.9per cent on Thursday. In Winnipeg, that rate rose to fourper cent, up from 3.6 per cent.

There have now been 34,352 COVID-19 cases identified in Manitoba, including 32,162 considered recovered, the release said. Another1,252 cases are still deemed active.

There were 1,465 COVID-19 tests done in Manitoba since Thursday.

Outbreaks, exposures announced

There were a number of possible COVID-19 exposures onManitoba flights last month, including one linked to a more contagious coronavirus variant.

Passengers in rows 11 to 17 on board Air Canada flight 265 on March 29 between Toronto and Winnipeg may have been exposed to a variant of concern.

Passengers in those affected seats are considered a close contact and are at risk of exposure, the province says. Close contacts are required to quarantine for 14 days following the flight and monitor for symptoms.

Passengers on the flightsbut not in the affected seats should still self-monitor for symptoms and immediately isolate if they develop.

More information on other affected flights is listed onthe province's website.

Three outbreaks were announced on Saturday, including two in Winnipeg.

Those includeMeadowood Manor Personal Care Home and Lions Personal Care Home.

An outbreak was also declaredat St. Anthony's Hospital Psychiatric Unit in The Pas.

Outbreak at St. Boniface Hospital: memo

Meanwhile, a deadly COVID-19outbreak at Winnipeg's St. Boniface Hospital has been declared, according toan internal memo.

In a letter to all staff and physicians dated Friday, the hospital's president and CEO,Martine Bouchard, wrote that management has declared aCOVID-19 outbreak in the B5 unit.

As of that day, there were four patients and one staff member who had tested positive, and one death associated with the outbreak, according to the memo.

CBC News has reached out to Shared Health, the hospital and the province for more information.

It's not known if the person whose death is associated with the outbreak has been reported by the province.

The memo says admissions and transfers to and from the unit will be stopped.

59 new cases reported on Thursday

Saturday'sCOVID-19 update from the province comes after 59 COVID-19 cases were reported on Thursday, as well as the deaths of twowomen in their 40s.

One of the women was from the Northern Health Region while the other was from the Southern Health region, a provincial news release said.

There will be no COVID-19 update on Easter Sunday, the province says.There will be regular COVID-19 news releases and web updates onMonday, along with a vaccine update news release on Monday.

The province's next COVID-19 media briefing will be on Tuesday, when Chief Provincial Public Health Officer Dr. Brent Roussin is scheduled to speak to reporters.