86 more COVID-19 cases, 3 new deaths reported in Manitoba Thursday

Manitoba has 86 new COVID-19 cases and three more people have died in the province on Thursday.

All three deaths are related to the alpha variant, also known as B.1.1.7.

They include a man in his 60s from the Northern Health region, a woman in her 70s from Southern Health and a man in his 70s from the Winnipeg area.

These latest deaths bring Manitoba's pandemic death toll to 1,157.

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The Winnipeg health region had 39 new cases. There are 16 new cases in the Interlake-Eastern health region, 11 new cases in the Northern Health region, and 10 each in the Prairie Mountain and Southern health regions.

The province's test positivity rate fell to 5.4 per cent and 5.2 per cent in Winnipeg, down from 5.6 per cent and 5.5 per cent the day before.

The total number of Manitobans in hospital due to COVID-19 fell to 142, compared to 152 on Wednesday, with 39 Manitoba COVID-19 patients in intensive care units.

Five of those patients are receiving care in Ontario hospitals.

In total, there are 113 patients in Manitoba's intensive care units — including patients receiving non-COVID-19-care — up from 107 on Wednesday. The normal pre-pandemic capacity in Manitoba is 72.

Manitoba currently has 1,016 active cases of COVID-19, up from 990 on Wednesday. Of those, 605 are variants of concern.