Flin Flon district down to 10 active COVID-19 cases, northern cases rise while provincial rates drop

New cases of COVID-19 in Manitoba stayed in the double digits Wednesday, levels of active cases in the north continue to rise and the Flin Flon health district is seeing its own numbers drop.

Manitoba reported a total of 94 net new cases Jan. 27 - 43 of which were in the Northern Health Region (NHR). Districts with the most new cases include the Grand Rapids/Misipawistik/Moose Lake/Mosakahiken/Easterville/Chemawawin district (13 new cases), the Island Lake district (eight new cases) and the Thompson/Mystery Lake district (seven new cases).

Despite seeing increases in some districts, others saw their active case count decline, including the Flin Flon/Snow Lake/Cranberry Portage/Sherridon district. The Flin Flon district is now down to 10 active cases, down from 12 Jan. 26 and from 20 at the peak earlier this month. Despite seeing seven new cases, the Thompson/Mystery Lake district actually saw active cases drop from 89 Tuesday to 84 Wednesday. Other districts with active case drops include Cross Lake/Pimicikamak (down two cases from 90 Tuesday to 88 Wednesday), Lynn Lake/Marcel Colomb/Leaf Rapids/O-Pipon-Na-Piwin/Granville Lake (down two from 94 Tuesday to 92 Wednesday) and Bay Line (down one case from two Tuesday to one Wednesday).

As of Wednesday, 1,774 people in northern Manitoba are listed as active cases in provincial data. Since the pandemic began, 1,805 northern residents have had the disease and recovered - 28 deaths have been tied to the disease within the NHR.

Four new deaths from COVID-19 were announced in Manitoba Jan. 27, with none of the deaths reported in the north. Manitoba now has 3,456 active cases - more than half of which are in northern Manitoba - and 281 people hospitalized due to COVID-19. Out of those 281 people, 127 people still have active cases of COVID-19 (24 of whom are in ICU) and 154 people have tested negative but are dealing with health complications due to the disease (12 of whom are in critical care.)

The province's five day test positivity rate has dropped below 10 per cent and now sits at 9.6 per cent province-wide and at 6.1 per cent in Winnipeg.

No new outbreaks or possible public exposures have been reported in the NHR.

Saskatchewan

Manitoba's western neighbour has seen new cases drop down into the mid-100s, with the Saskatchewan government reporting 149 new cases of COVID-19. Three of those cases have been reported in the far north east health zone, two of which have been found in the far north east 2 health zone. Several communities near Flin Flon in Saskatchewan, including Creighton, Denare Beach, Pelican Narrows, Sandy Bay and others, are part of the far north east 2 zone, which now has 33 active cases of COVID-19. 

Six more people in Saskatchewan have died from COVID-19, all from communities in southern Saskatchewan.