***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 the provincial response level in the #RestartMB Pandemic Response System is moving from restricted (orange) to caution (yellow), effective Aug. 7. This change reflects that the spread of COVID-19 is at low to moderate levels.

Two new deaths in people with COVID-19 are being reported today, including:
- a male in his 50s from the Winnipeg health region, linked to the B.1.1.7 (alpha) variant of concern; and
- a female in her 60s from the Interlake-Eastern health region, linked to an unspecified variant of concern.

The current five-day COVID-19 test positivity rate is 2.1 per cent provincially and 1.8 per cent in Winnipeg. As of 9:30 a.m. today, 54 new cases of the virus have been identified since Tuesday: 17 cases on Wednesday, Aug. 4, and 37 cases today. Six cases have been removed due to data correction, bringing the total number of lab-confirmed cases in Manitoba to 57,739.

Of the 54 cases reported today, the COVID-19 data shows:
- 22 new cases in the Interlake-Eastern health region;
- one new case in the Northern health region;
- one new case in the Prairie Mountain Health region;
- eight new cases in the Southern Health-Santé Sud health region; and
- 22 new cases in the Winnipeg health region.

Today’s data also shows:
· 528 active cases and 56,028 individuals who have recovered from COVID-19;
· 91 Manitobans hospitalized with COVID-19 including 29 people with active COVID-19 as well as 62 people who are no longer infectious;
· a total of 17 Manitoba patients receiving intensive care for COVID-19, including four 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;
· 1,815 laboratory tests were completed yesterday, bringing the total number of lab tests completed since early February 2020 to 880,959; and
· the total number of deaths in people with COVID-19 is 1,183.

The Manitoba government is also providing an update on ongoing enforcement efforts to protect Manitobans from the spread of COVID-19. A total of 27 warnings and 14 tickets were issued for the week of July 26 to Aug. 1, including:
- nine $1,296 tickets to individuals;
- three $298 tickets to individuals for failure to wear a mask in an indoor public place; and
- two $5,000 tickets to businesses.

Manitobans are urged to continue reporting compliance and enforcement issues by visiting www.manitoba.ca/COVID19 and completing the reporting form, or by calling 204-945-3744 or (toll-free) 1-866-626-4862 and pressing option three on the call menu. Updated enforcement statistics are posted online weekly at: https://manitoba.ca/openmb/infomb/departments/index.html#cdr.

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.