Manitoba Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Brent Roussin announced 81new cases of COVID-19 this afternoon bringing the five day test positivity rate to 4.8 percent.

He also reported four additional deaths all in the Winnipeg region. Of the new cases 28 are in Southern Health, 25 in Northern health and 20 in the Winnipeg region with single digits in the other regions. 

Roussin noted they continue to screen for variants of the virus so he can confirm that with all of their screening and sequencing to date they have only discovered the one case of a variant of concern. 

He added they have limited contacts to that case, household contacts, none of which have developed symptoms or tested positive and all those contacts have been tested twice at this point.

Of the total 30, 588 reported COVID cases, 1, 582 are considered active, 28, 140 individuals have recovered, and 240 people are in hospital with 29 are in intensive care.