Province reports two COVID deaths in Southern Health region By: Carol Sanders Posted: 2:46 PM CDT Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2020 Last Modified: 6:30 PM CDT Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2020 Updates

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This article was published 17/08/2020 (1592 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Two COVID-19 deaths announced Tuesday mark the first time Manitoba has reported multiple novel coronavirus fatalities in a single day.

Both deceased were elderly men in the Southern Health region who had been hospitalized, public health officials said. They are the 10th and 11th pandemic deaths, respectively, reported in the province.

The men — one in his 80s from the Hanover health district, one in his 90s from the Niverville/Ritchot health district — were previously announced cases connected to known clusters, a Shared Health news release said, offering no other details.

On Tuesday, 25 active cases were reported in the Niverville/Ritchot district but neither Niverville nor Ritchot is home to a COVID-19 cluster, leaders of those two communities said.

"It’s an unfortunate situation," Ritchot Mayor Chris Ewen said. "There’s got to be a way we can find out by region that’s a little simpler."

Last week, the province responded to calls for more geographic information and began reporting the number of COVID-19 cases in each region by health district. Ritchot and its neighbouring chambers of commerce and the town council of Niverville have asked public health to provide even more specific detail about the location of active cases, and were told officials are looking into it, Ewen said.

"It’s hard to say if it’s a cluster of people who went to a restaurant here or a seniors home in Niverville," said Ewen, adding he doesn’t know of anyone in Ritchot — or anywhere — who has COVID-19

The chief administrative officer of Niverville, Eric King, said its health district includes Île des Chênes, Ste. Agathe, St. Adolphe, Grand Pointe, Glenlea, Howden and South Waverley south of the Perimeter Highway.

The district — as well as Hanover district — also includes Hutterite colonies where COVID-19 cases were reported up until last month, when chief provincial public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin stopped identifying them.

Roussin has stated repeatedly he won’t identify any cases unless it is to benefit public health. He has cautioned against stigmatizing people — and communities — in response to positive COVID-19 tests.

Now, after getting through the first half of the summer with relatively few new cases, the virus has made an unwelcome August return. Health officials reported Manitoba’s ninth death — a Portage la Prairie man in his 80s — over the weekend.

On Tuesday, officials reported 17 new cases in Manitoba — 11 in the Winnipeg health region, and two new cases in each of Interlake-Eastern, Prairie Mountain and Southern Health .

The Winnipeg cases are mostly related to contacts that turned into cases, but some are of "unknown acquisition," indicating the virus has spread in the community.

No updated information was provided about the "outbreak" reported at Bethesda Place nursing home in Steinbach, where one person had tested positive as of Monday.

There were 235 active cases in Manitoba, with eight in hospital, including two in intensive care.

There are 502 Manitobans who’ve recovered. The total number of lab-confirmed cases in Manitoba is 748.

The five-day COVID-19 test positivity rate crept up to 1.8 per cent Tuesday from 1.78 per cent one day ago.

On Monday, 1,028 COVID-19 lab tests were completed in Manitoba.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca

Carol Sanders
Legislature reporter

After 20 years of reporting on the growing diversity of people calling Manitoba home, Carol moved to the legislature bureau in early 2020.

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