MANITOBA COVID-19 UPDATE AUG. 9:
- 35 new cases
- total now 542
- 182 active cases
- 8 deaths (3 - men 70s, 2 - women 60s, woman 80s, man 50s, man 60s)
- 6 hospitalizations, 3 in ICU
- 352 recoveries
- 100,830 tests done
- 756 tests completed yesterday

Seven of the cases today are connected to a business in Brandon (Maple Leaf).

No evidence of workplace transmission.

Five-day test-positivity rate is now 1.45%

The data shows there were:
• 20 new cases in the Prairie Mountain Health region;
• 10 new cases in the Southern Health – Santé Sud health region;
• four new cases in the Winnipeg health region; and
• one new case in the Interlake-Eastern heath region.

While many of today’s cases appear to be linked to known clusters in the Southern Health region and Brandon, or are close contacts of a previously announced case, preliminary information suggests that there may be a small number of cases of unknown acquisition in these areas.

1.45% test-positive rate is the highest it has been since early April.

35 cases are the second most reported in a single day (and most in a single day in terms of reconcilled numbers).

Most detailed information on the covid-19 dashboard is coming later this week.

Cases broken down by person from today:

Roussin said adding the use of masks can have benefits IF people are doing the other fundementals. Still no plan to mandate masks.

Roussin not putting a number to community transmission. Calls it a small number.

Roussin on concern about test-positive rate rising:

Says they knew we weren't done with virus. Have to learn to live with it. Messaging will be ramping up.

Health system is prepared for an uptick in cases. Small and predictable cases have severe illness, requiring hospitalization and even ICU.

Lag time when it comes to impact on health care system. Won't know if this rise in cases will have a big impact just yet.

Roussin says the current situation in Manitoba is due to clusters. For the most part, it is contained to those clusters. Virus was never gone.

Roussin says the message of optimism for people worried is that we're not helpless to this virus. Message goes back to the early days of the pandemic. Never were helpless, and certainly aren't right now.

Can we expect numbers to go down without same restrictions as before?

Learned now the things we can do without restrictions, Roussin says. Would like to avoid those, and keep precautions in place.

Nothing off the table. Restrictions are always an option.

Roussin doesn't have number of cases linked to Brandon cluster nor does he have the total for the number at Maple Leaf.

Presser is over.