COVID-19 hospitalizations, cases rise in Manitoba: health data – Winnipeg | Canadian

Manitoba saw an increase in both the number of COVID-19 cases reported and hospitalizations linked to the virus last week, according to health data.

The province’s latest epidemiology update, which covers July 3 to July 9, reports 229 new lab-confirmed COVID-19 infections and new 59 hospitalizations — seven of which required intensive care.

Another two COVID-19-related deaths were reported last week, bringing the province’s COVID-19 death toll to 2,053.

While provincial case counts no longer give an accurate picture of active infection rates because the government has significantly scaled back testing, the numbers do show a marked increase over last week’s data, when 125 new lab-confirmed cases were reported.

There were 46 new hospitalizations — including a child under the age of 10 admitted to ICU — reported in the previous week’s COVID-19 data.

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It is not known exactly how many people are currently in hospital or an ICU as a result of COVID-19 because the province no longer reports those numbers.

Meanwhile, the province says the number of lab tests for COVID-19 rose to an average of 269 per day last week, up from 244 a day the previous week.

That brought the province’s positivity rate of lab tests to 14.8 per cent last week, up from the 11.5 per cent reported seven days earlier.

But, like the new case numbers, the data on test positivity rates no longer gives an accurate picture of COVID-19 spread because the government has reduced the availability of PCR tests and don’t include the results of rapid tests done at home in the calculation.

Officials said there were no new outbreaks at long-term care homes or hospitals between July 3 and July 9.

Questions about COVID-19? Here are some things you need to know:

Symptoms can include fever, cough and difficulty breathing — very similar to a cold or flu. Some people can develop a more severe illness. People most at risk of this include older adults and people with severe chronic medical conditions like heart, lung or kidney disease. If you develop symptoms, contact public health authorities.

For full COVID-19 coverage from Global News, visit our coronavirus page.