111 new COVID-19 cases as Manitoba sees another bump in coronavirus variants

Manitoba reports 111 newcases of COVID-19 and 14 additional cases of highly contagious coronavirus variants on Tuesday, a news release says.

Thirteen cases of the more contagiousB117 variant originally detected in the U.K. havebeen identified, as well as one case of the B1351 variant first seen in South Africa. They are all in the Winnipeg health region.

Of those cases, nine are close contacts to a known case, one is travel related, three are unknown acquisition and one is pending further investigation, a provincial spokesperson says.

The province hasnow identified 55 variant of concern cases in the province, with 32of the cases announced in the last two days.

The province nearly doubled the number ofmore contagious coronavirus variant cases on Monday, when 18 cases of themore contagiousB117 variant were announced. One was in the Interlake and 17 were in Winnipeg.

Many of the cases are linked to travel or close contacts, but some have no known origin, public health officials have said.

As of Tuesday, 24 areconsidered active, the provincial spokesperson said.

Dr. Brent Roussin,Manitoba's chief public health officer, said last week that all COVID-19 test samplesdating back to early Februarywill be screened for the B117 variant and theB1351variant.

Jump in daily cases

Of the new cases, most 71 are in the Northern Health Region.

There are 31 cases in the Winnipeg health region, five in the Southern Health region, three in the Prairie Mountain Health region and one in the Interlake-Eastern health region.

That's the most cases reported in one day since Feb. 18.

No deaths were reported, leaving the death toll due to COVID-19 at 917 in Manitoba.

The test positivity rate is creeping upagain, at 5.2per cent in Manitoba and3.7 per cent in Winnipeg.

The number of people in hospital due to COVID-19 remains at 151, while the number of coronavirus patients in intensive care units is down to 22.

There were 1,515 COVID-19 tests done on Monday, bringing the total number completed to552,738.

There are 989 active cases and 30,997 people have recovered from COVID-19.

The data was made public later than usual on Tuesday due to a technical problem.

Possible exposure in Steinbach

Public health officials are warning of a possible COVID-19 exposure in Steinbach last week.

The exposure happened on Friday morning until about 1 p.m. at Wilson Court, 301 Kroeker Ave., the news release says.

Anyone who's experiencing symptoms should isolate immediatelyand get tested. Anyone with questions can call Health Links for more information.

Meanwhile, vaccine appointments are now open to anyone 75and olderand First Nations people 55 and older.