COVID-19 cases soar in Lynn Lake as north shatters regional new case record

COVID-19 is continuing to ravage parts of northern Manitoba. More than half of the province's new COVID-19 diagnoses came from the Northern Health Region (NHR) Thursday - a total of 139 new cases.

The brunt of the new cases are concentrated in far northern communities, with case loads in the Island Lake, Shamattawa/York Factory/Tataskweyak/Split Lake and Bunibonibee/Oxford House/Manto Sipi/Gods River/Gods Lake health districts remaining high. There are now 355 active cases in the Island Lake district, 339 in the Shamattawa district and 165 in the Bunibonibee district. In total, 40 new cases were reported in Island Lake Thursday, while five were found in Shammatawa and only one was found in Bunibonibee.

The fastest growth in overall cases has been found in the Lynn Lake/Marcel Colomb/Leaf Rapids/O-Pipon-Na-Piwin/Granville Lake district, where a whopping 57 new cases of COVID-19 were reported in provincial data Jan. 14, bringing the region up to 144 active cases.

Help may soon be on the way for the remote community, about 240 kilometres almost due north of Flin Flon. The Town of Lynn Lake announced Jan. 13 that members of Manitoba Task Force Four, a provincial emergency response team from the Manitoba Office of the Fire Commissioner, would be arriving in town later this week. The crew will be tasked with providing support to local and regional health workers, providing emergency medical care if neede and to help with planning and logistics.

The NHR now has 1,297 active COVID-19 cases, an all-time high. Despite housing just over five per cent of Manitoba's population, the NHR now accounts for almost half of Manitoba's active COVID-19 case load. The province announced 259 net new cases total throughout Manitoba, with more than half of those cases in the NHR.

No new public exposures or outbreaks have been announced in northern Manitoba.

Manitoba now has 2,866 active cases of the disease, including 117 people in hospital with active cases and 16 people in ICU. Including people who have tested positive for COVID-19, who are not infectious but are still fighting complications of the disease, there are 290 people in hospital and 37 people in ICU. 

A total of 755 Manitobans have died due to COVID-19, including two more people announced Jan. 14.

Saskatchewan

Case numbers are staying high in Saskatchewan, which reported 312 new cases of COVID-19 Thursday.

Out of those 312 cases, 29 new cases were reported in the far north east health zone, with five in the far north east 2 health zone containing Creighton, Denare Beach, Pelican Narrows, Sandy Bay and other communities near Flin Flon. In the far north east 2 zone, a total of 97 people have active COVID-19 cases according to the province.