111 new COVID-19 cases, 1 death in Manitoba on Thursday

There are 111 new COVID-19 cases and one death in Manitoba on Thursday.

The death is a man in his 70s from the Winnipeg health region, connected to the outbreak at Golden Links Lodge personal care home.

Manitoba's test positivity rate is 4.3 per cent, down from 4.6 on Wednesday, and Winnipeg's rate remains at 3.8 per cent.

There were no new cases of more contagious coronavirus variants reported in Manitoba. So far, tests have confirmed a total of 63 cases of the B117 variant, first found in the United Kingdom, and 14 cases the B1351 variant, first identified in South Africa.

This is the third time in two weeks that Manitoba's case counts have risen above 100. The last time was on March 16. 

Nearly half of the new cases reported Thursday are in the Northern Health Region, which has 53, while there are 46 in the Winnipeg region, nine in Prairie Mountain Health, three in Southern Health and none in the Interlake-Eastern health region.

The total number of hospitalizations rose to 146 from 138 the day before, with 61 cases still active, up from 58. The number of patients in intensive care units also rose to 30, including 14 active cases, up from 27 with 14 active cases the day before.

The seven-day average daily case count has risen gradually since the start of the month. On March 1, the average was around 61 cases per day. Now, it's around 90, an increase of almost 50 per cent over that time.

Manitoba has now had a total of 33,696 confirmed cases since the start of the pandemic, with 1,109 still listed as active. Ongoing reviews of active cases have removed 215 from the total, health officials said Thursday.

The total number of COVID-related deaths in Manitoba remains 929, after one previously reported death was removed. 

Labs completed 2,747 COVID-19 tests on Wednesday.