64 new COVID-19 cases reported on Sunday as Manitoba's death toll rises by 2

There are64new COVID-19 cases in Manitoba on Sunday and the province's death toll linked to the illness hasclimbed by twosince Saturday, its online dashboard says.

Manitoba has now recorded 1,150 COVID-19 deaths, the dashboard says.

The province is no longer issuing coronavirus news releases on weekends, so no further details were provided about the deaths. The dashboard's death total is sometimes adjusted when deaths are removed due to data errors.

The new cases are split between the Winnipeg health region, with 29, the Southern Health region, with 11, the Northern Health Region, with nine, the Prairie Mountain Health region, with eight, and the Interlake-Eastern health region, with seven, the dashboard says.

The update means Manitoba's seven-day case average is now down to 64.

Manitoba's five-day test positivity rate climbed to six per cent, the dashboard says, up from 5.7 on Saturday.

There are now 144 COVID-19 patients hospitalized in Manitoba, the dashboard says, a drop of eight since Saturday. There are now 42 patients with the illness in intensive care, up by one.

That doesn't include patients who have been transferred out of province for critical care. On Sunday, the number of those patients remained atsix, according to a spokesperson with Shared Health. That number has been unchanged since Friday.

Manitoba started moving some of its COVID-19 patients to intensive care units in other regions in mid-May as the province worked to free up space in its strained hospitals.

As of Sunday, 49 per cent of Manitobans 12 and up had been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, the province's online vaccine dashboard says, while 74.7 per cent had at least one dose.

That brings Manitoba even closer to its next reopening plan goal: getting half its eligible population fully vaccinated and three-quarters with at least one dose by Aug. 2.

If that happens by the deadline, the province could see greater capacity limits, increased allowed gatherings sizes and fewer restrictions. If it happens earlier, those changes could come even sooner.

Since the start of the pandemic, 56,417 Manitobans have tested positive for COVID-19, the dashboard says. That includes 54,249 people considered recovered and 1,018 still deemed active.