Manitoba's Acting Deputy Chief Provincial Public Health Officer has suggested Manitobans not worry about the rising number of COVID-19 variant of concern cases.

Dr. Jazz Atwal announced Friday an additional 46 confirmed cases of the B117 variant of concern, commonly referred to as the UK variant. The total number of confirmed variant of concern cases of B117 in Manitoba is 109 and B1351, or South Africa variant is 14, bringing the total number of confirmed variant of concern cases to 123.

Upon making this announcement Friday afternoon, Dr. Atwal was asked whether the sudden jump in cases is worrisome.

"Worrisome is a strong word," cautions Dr. Atwal. "I think we are well aware again of what was going to happen. And we see it happening."

Of the 46 new cases, 44 are in the Winnipeg health region and two from Southern Health. Public health officials have not identified where the two in Southern Health come from.

Generally speaking, Dr. Atwal says there has been variant of concern clusters related to schools and there have also been occupational exposures. Currently, 32 per cent of all COVID-19 cases in Manitoba are testing positive as a variant of concern.

But again, Dr. Atwal notes COVID-19 cases are playing out as expected.

"We know at some point the variant of concern will become the dominant strain," he says. "We probably won't be calling it the variant of concern at that point, we'll be calling it COVID-19 again until potentially another variant of concern happens to arise in Manitoba, which may never happen or which may happen three or six months down the road."

Meanwhile, Dr. Atwal says they know that the UK variant is at least 50 per cent more communicable than the initial strain of COVID-19, with a 60 per cent higher risk of hospitalization and 100 per cent higher risk of ending up in the Intensive Care Unit. There is also a 60 per cent higher risk of death. However, he notes there are ongoing studies to determine how accurate those numbers are.