Manitoba Deputy Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Jazz Atwal announced 489 new cases of COVID -19 this afternoon bringing the five day test positivity rate to 11.8 percent.  There were no additional deaths.  Of the new cases 328 are in the Winnipeg region and 88 in Southern health with lower numbers in other regions including ten in Northern health. Of the total 44,189 reported cases 4163 are considered active and 39,024 individuals have recovered. Atwal expressed concern about the high numbers.  He explains the rise in cases we are seeing is related to not limiting contacts and not adhering to the public health orders that were in place.  He says if we continue to follow the model we can be seeing high case counts throughout the summer and the current trend lead to the health system coming close to being overwhelmed.

Reported variants of concern total 5611 with 2144 active with a total of 94 reported in the Northern health region.

Eligibility to be immunized with the Pfizer vaccine has been expanded to include all people aged 12 and over.  Anyone under 18 will be able to get this vaccine at provincial supersites and urban Indigenous clinics.