***The Province has announced COVID-19 media bulletins will be reduced from a week day schedule to a twice-weekly schedule, being issued Mondays and Thursdays. With that adjustment, PembinaValleyOnline will be following suit, and only publishing COVID-19 updates Monday and Thursday. Also, the DataMB COVID-19 case and vaccination dashboards will be updated on weekdays only.***

Public health officials advise three new deaths in people with COVID-19 are being reported today. This includes deaths reported on the weekend:
- a male in his 60s from the Winnipeg health region, linked to the B.1.1.7 (alpha) variant of concern;
- a male in his 60s from the Winnipeg health region, linked to an unspecified variant of concern; and
- a male in his 80s from Southern Health–Santé Sud health region, linked to an unspecified variant of concern.

The current five-day COVID-19 test positivity rate is 2.6 per cent provincially and 1.9 per cent in Winnipeg. As of 9:30 a.m. today, 101 new cases of the virus have been identified since Friday: 27 cases on Saturday, July 31; 34 cases on Sunday, Aug. 1; 18 cases Monday, Aug 2 and 22 cases today. Three cases have been removed due to data correction, bringing the total number of lab-confirmed cases in Manitoba to 57,691.

Of the 101 cases reported today, the COVID-19 data shows:
- 24 new cases in the Interlake–Eastern health region;
- seven new cases in the Northern health region;
- three new cases in the Prairie Mountain Health region;
- 18 new cases in the Southern Health–Santé Sud health region; and
- 49 new cases in the Winnipeg health region.


Today’s data also shows:
- 528 active cases and 55,982 individuals who have recovered from COVID-19;
- 95 Manitobans hospitalized with COVID-19 including 35 people with active COVID-19 as well as 60 people who are no longer infectious;
- a total of 19 Manitoba patients receiving intensive care for COVID-19 including six people in intensive care units with active COVID-19 as well as 13 people who are no longer infectious but continue to require critical care;
- 1,345 laboratory tests were completed yesterday, bringing the total number of lab tests completed since early February 2020 to 878,040; and
- the total number of deaths in people with COVID-19 is 1,181.

Possible exposure locations are listed online by region at the province’s #RestartMB Pandemic Response System webpage. For up-to-date information on possible public exposures to COVID-19 in regions, visit www.gov.mb.ca/covid19/updates/flights.html#event and click on your region.

Additional data on variants of concern is available at https://geoportal.gov.mb.ca/. Data related to COVID-19, outbreaks and some downloadable and historic data can also be found at this site.

For up-to-date information on COVID-19 in Manitoba, including the online screening tool, testing criteria and locations, self-isolation requirements, public health fundamentals and the provincial response level on the #RestartMB Pandemic Response System, visit www.manitoba.ca/COVID19.