Manitoba's streak of record-breaking daily COVID-19 cases has been broken as public health announced 75 new cases Friday.

This is in sharp contrast to the 173 cases recorded Thursday.

The latest provincial data on Friday's cases shows:
• seven cases in the Interlake-Eastern health region;
• two cases in the Northern health region;
• one case in the Prairie Mountain Health region;
• two cases in the Southern Health-Santé Sud health region; and
• 63 cases in the Winnipeg health region.

There are now 3,173 cases of COVID-19 in Manitoba. The data also shows 1,582 active cases while 1,553 individuals have recovered. There are 25 people in hospital and five people in intensive care. The number of deaths due to COVID-19 is 38.

Laboratory testing numbers show 2,174 tests were completed yesterday, bringing the total number of lab tests completed since early February to 220,052. According to public health, case investigations continue and if a public health risk is identified, the public will be notified.

Public health officials advise that with the increase in cases, the number of possible exposures continues to rise.

As of 9:30 a.m., Friday they say there have been nine school exposures in the Winnipeg, Southern Health-Santé Sud and Prairie Mountain Health regions, as well as exposures related to one child care centre, two travel/transit and one night club since Thursday.

Possible exposure locations will be shared on social media and are listed online by region at the province’s Pandemic Response System webpage.

Flight information is listed at https://manitoba.ca/covid19/updates/flights.html.

For up-to-date information on possible public exposures to COVID-19 within regions, visit:

• Southern Health–Santé Sud health region
• Prairie Mountain Health region
• Winnipeg health region

The chief provincial public health officer strongly encourages Manitobans to reduce the number of close contacts outside their household, and avoid closed-in or crowded spaces. In addition, they should focus on these fundamentals to help stop the spread of COVID-19:
• Stay home if you are sick.
• Wash/sanitize your hands and cover your cough.
• Physically distance when you are with people outside your household.
• If you cannot physically distance, wear a mask to help reduce the risk to others or as required by public health orders.

Unless recommended by public health officials, only individuals experiencing COVID-19 symptoms should go for testing. Individuals with symptoms are asked to seek testing as soon as possible once symptoms are present. Employers are asked to only send employees for testing if they have symptoms or if testing has been recommended by public health officials.

The online assessment tool can be found at https://sharedhealthmb.ca/covid19/screening-tool/and COVID-19 symptoms can be found at www.gov.mb.ca/covid19/updates/about.html#collapse4.