One COVID-19 case remaining in Flin Flon health district as northern cases see decline

The health district covering Flin Flon is down to just one active COVID-19 case and cases throughout the Northern Health Region (NHR) are dropping.

The Flin Flon/Snow Lake/Cranberry Portage/Sherridon health district reported four recoveries in one day July 7, going from five cases active on Tuesday to just one on Wednesday. Only four new COVID-19 cases were reported throughout the NHR Wednesday, with two each found in the Shamattawa/York Factory/Tataskweyak/Split Lake and The Pas/Opaskwayak/Kelsey districts.

By contrast, the health district had 22 active cases as of June 21. The district, which stretches from Flin Flon to Snow Lake, has had some level of active COVID-19 cases since early March. A total of 285 people in the district have tested positive for COVID-19 since the pandemic began, almost all of which were infected in the disease's second and third waves. Several population centres the size of Flin Flon in northern Manitoba have reported higher case counts - more than 1,000 people have tested positive in the district covering Thompson and 825 people have tested positive in The Pas/OCN/Kelsey health district. Cross Lake/Pimicikamak has seen 744 total cases as of July 7.

Five of the NHR's 16 health districts have double-digit case loads, running from 74 active cases in The Pas to 16 active cases in Island Lake. All other northern districts have four active cases or fewer. More than a third of all northern Manitoba's active cases are located in The Pas/OCN/Kelsey.

Manitoba reported 70 net new cases province-wide, mostly in the Winnipeg region and the Interlake-Eastern Regional Health Authority. Two deaths due to COVID-19 - a man in his 30s from the Interlake region and a man in his 50s from Winnipeg, both tied to variants of concern - were reported in Manitoba July 7, bringing the province's death toll to 1,154 people.

For more detailed district-by-district data for northern Manitoba, see below.