Manitoba Deputy Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Jazz Atwal announced 290 new cases of COVID-19 this afternoon, bringing the five day test positivity rate to 7.2 percent. 

Atwal also reported one additional death in the Winnipeg Health Region. Of the new cases, 187 are in the Winnipeg region, with much lower numbers in other regions, including 17 in the Northern Health Region. 

Of the total 38, 729 reported cases, 2, 375 are active and 35, 380 individuals have recovered. A total of 2, 095 variants of concern cases have been reported with 830 active.

Atwal says the province is currently not considering a lockdown to help reduce numbers.  He explains they have to balance that risk of negative impacts of not putting new restrictions in and overloading our acute care systems, citing Ontario and other countries where the whole system collapsed.  Atwal states while they are not going down that road,  there are negative consequences to shutting everything down on both a social and mental health aspect, so they have to look at both sides and find that balance from a public health perspective.

Eligibility for the AstraZeneca Covishield vaccine has expanded to include people aged 30 to 39 with priority health conditions.