Pukatawagan hits 250 active cases, two new cases in Flin Flon district, numbers drop for north Sask.

Manitoba reported another 93 new cases of COVID-19 Wednesday.  According to provincial data, more than a third of those cases were found in the Pukatawagan health district, now the site of northern Manitoba's largest COVID-19 outbreak.

The Pukatawagan/Mathias Colomb district is now up to 250 active cases of the disease, with 36 new cases added to provincial data March 17. Seven northern regions saw new cases reported Wednesday, including the Flin Flon/Snow Lake/Cranberry Portage/Sherridon district, which saw two new cases added to the provincial rolls - the district now has nine active cases of the disease.

There is at least one active COVID-19 case in every district in the Northern Health Region (NHR) as of March 17, ranging from only one listed active case in four districts (the Bay Line, Gillam/Fox Lake, Grand Rapids/Misipawistik/Moose Lake/Mosakahiken/Easterville/Chemawawin and Norway House districts) to the 250 seen in the Pukatawagan area.

In total, there are 610 active cases in the NHR and 1,035 active cases throughout Manitoba. Five-day test positivity rates dropped as low as three per cent March 4, but now sit around 4.4 per cent.

Nine more cases of COVID-19 in Manitoba have been confirmed to be variants of concern, each in Winnipeg and each of the B.1.1.7 variant. The province has announced a total of 64 confirmed variant of concern cases, almost all of which have been reported in Winnipeg. A possible exposure to the B.1.1.7 variant was reported in Winnipeg at the Costco on St. James Street March 7 from 10 a.m.-12 p.m. - anyone who attended the Costco during that time who has shown COVID-19 symptoms is asked to immediately isolate and seek testing.

The province has 149 people in hospital due to COVID-19, including 21 people in intensive care. For further northern case information by district, see below.

Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan's rate of new cases is dropping and fewer cases are active in Pelican Narrows, but variants of concern are causing problems in Regina.

In total, 87 new cases were reported province-wide Wednesday, including five in the far north east region, all in the far north east district. Despite the new cases, the overall number of people with COVID-19 has dropped in the region over the last week, with only 64 cases still active according to provincial government data. 

That data does not match with information published by Pelican Narrows' Angelique Canada Health Centre, which has reported 74 active cases as of March 16, but both numbers show a noticeable drop in cases in the region. According to the health centre, 124 people in Pelican Narrows had active cases as of March 10, but 71 people have recovered from the disease in the last week.

Further south, Saskatchewan has confirmed 135 total variants of concern cases, most of which are the B.1.1.7 variant. Out of those 135 cases, 121 are in the Regina area. Another 313 cases of COVID-19 are considered as presumptive variant cases, spread out across six different health regions, all in the south.

No variant of concern cases have been reported in health districts near Flin Flon in either province.