Active COVID-19 cases drop in Flin Flon district, three new cases, Thompson and Lynn Lake lead way

New cases and new recoveries - that was the theme for Flin Flon and the rest of the north Friday, where 64 cases were found throughout the Northern Health Region but almost as many people have recovered from the disease.

The total number of active cases in the Flin Flon/Snow Lake/Cranberry Portage/Sherridon district has dropped from 20 Thursday to 17 Friday, thanks to six people who tested positive for COVID-19 now being marked as recovered. Three new cases of COVID-19 were reported Jan. 22, offsetting some recoveries but still leading to a net drop in overall active cases in Flin Flon.

Throughout the north, cases continued to grow, with the highest number of new cases reported in the Thompson/Mystery Lake and Lynn Lake/Marcel Colomb/Leaf Rapids/O-Pipon-Na-Piwin/Granville Lake districts. Seventeen new cases of COVID-19 were reported in the Thompson district, pushing active cases in the region up to 85, while 14 new cases in the Lynn Lake region pushed the region's active cases to 98, despite a big jump in the number of people recovering in the district.

The majority of cases in northern Manitoba are still tied to outbreaks in remote Indigenous communities, but larger centres, including The Pas/OCN, Cross Lake, Thompson, Flin Flon and Norway House still have per-capita case loads well over the provincial average. Manitoba has a provincial average of 83 active cases per 100,000 people, but all five of those northern communities are at least three times higher than that mark. Four of them - Flin Flon being the sole exception - are more than four times higher than the average. Cross Lake/Pimickamak has 886 active cases per 100,000 people and The Pas/OCN has 779 active cases per 100,000 people - ten and nine times higher than the provincial average respectively.

Throughout Manitoba, the province reported 171 net new cases and two further deaths, both in southern communities. Manitoba now has 3,261 active COVID-19 cases and 274 people hospitalized due to the disease, including 39 people in ICU.

Saskatchewan

Manitoba's western neighbour continues to see its case load grow, but active cases in the health district including Creighton and Denare Beach are dropping.

Saskatchewan announced eight new deaths from COVID-19 and 312 new COVID-19 cases province-wide, including 14 new cases in the far north east health zone. Two of those new cases were reported in the zone including Creighton, Denare Beach, Pelican Narrows, Sandy Bay and other communities near Flin Flon - the far north east 2 zone. There are currently 47 active cases in the zone, 17 of which are confirmed by the Angelique Canada Health Centre to be in Pelican Narrows. No further active cases have been reported at the Jonah Sewap Memorial Health Centre in Deschambault Lake.