119 new COVID-19 cases, 4 more deaths in Manitoba on Sunday

There are 119new COVID-19 cases in Manitoba on Sunday and fourmore people have died from the illness, the province says in a news release.

Manitoba's five-day test positivity rate is up by a small margin to 7.9 per cent, the release says, while Winnipeg's is up by an even smaller margin to 4.5 per cent.

Forty-nine of the new cases or more than 40 per cent are in the hard-hit Northern Health Region, the release says. The remaining cases are split between the Interlake-Eastern health region (35), theWinnipeg health region (27), the Southern Health region (six) and the Prairie Mountain Health region (two), it says.

The massive northernregion is Manitoba's most sparsely populated, with a 2019 population just shy of 77,000.

As of Sunday, that part of the province has a COVID-19 infection rate of 5,033.08 cases per 100,000 people, Manitoba's online dashboard says about five cases for every 100 people.

That's by far Manitoba's highest infection rate in any of its five health regions, and more than double the province's second-highest of 2,231.98 in the Southern Health region or about two in every 100 people.

The deaths announced Sunday include a man in his 60s and a woman in her 80s linked to the outbreak at the Rock Lake Hospital in Crystal City, Man.

A man in his 60s from the Interlake-Eastern Health region and a man in his 90s from the Northern Health Region also died, the release says. Those deaths bring Manitoba's total to 829.

There are now 259 COVID-19 patients hospitalized in Manitoba, the release says, down from 275 on Saturday. That includes 39 people in intensive care, a number that has not changed since Friday.

A COVID-19 outbreak has been declared at Steinbach's Rest Haven Nursing Home, the release says, while a previously declared outbreak is now over at the Lynn Lake Hospital.

Starting Monday, people working in licensed child-care centres, nursery schools and family or group child-care homes in Winnipeg or in the boundaries of the Hanover and Seine River school divisions will be eligible for rapid COVID-19 testing at a site in Winnipeg.

Information about how to make an appointment at the Nairn Avenue Fast Pass site is available on the province's website, the release says.

Manitoba has now identified 29,564 COVID-19 cases, the release says. Of those, 25,232 people are considered to have recovered from the illness, while another 3,503 cases are still active though health officials have said that number is inflated by a data entry backlog.

There were 1,459 COVID-19 tests done in Manitoba on Saturday, the release says, which brings the total number of swabs completed in the province to 477,207 since last February.