Manitoba and Saskatchewan saw small increases in total COVID-19 cases, but no growth tied to recent outbreaks in each province has been found.
Manitoba reported 11 new cases Thursday - eight in Winnipeg, two in Southern Health-Sante Sud and one in Prairie Mountain Health. The province currently has 293 active cases, with 10 people in hospital and two in intensive care. In total, exactly 1,500 Manitobans have tested positive for COVID-19 since the pandemic started.
One case that was previously reported in the Shamattawa/York Factory/Tataskweyak/Split Lake district has been moved to Winnipeg, with the other case likely to also be moved later this week.
No other cases have been linked to Winnipeg's John Pritchard School, where seven previous positive tests have been reported from since school started last week.
Prairie Mountain Health, which has been under heavy restrictions after a spike in cases last month, will soon be lowered on the province's pandemic response system to a "yellow" caution level. Beginning Friday, PMH will no longer require masks in public spaces (but will still recommend them) and will allow public gatherings of up to 50 people indoors and up to 100 outdoors.
"If you can't socially distance, wear a mask," reads the province's Sept. 17 media briefing.
Saskatchewan saw seven new cases of the disease Sept. 17 - four in Saskatoon, two in the south east zone and one in the south west zone. One case reported Sept. 16 was deemed to be from a resident from out of province and was taken off the province's case load.
No new cases have been reported in the far north, where four people still have COVID-19 - two in the far north west near the Alberta border and two people in the Far North East 2 zone, which contains Creighton, Denare Beach and other Saskatchewan communities near Flin Flon. No new cases have been reported in either region in the past week.
One hundred and nine people from Saskatchewan currently have COVID-19, with five people in hospital, all in Saskatoon. The province has seen 1,624 people diagnosed with COVID-19 during the pandemic.
No new cases were found connected to a social gathering in Saskatoon earlier this month that caused a small outbreak in the province's largest city. Twenty-one people are confirmed to have gotten sick after the gathering, including attendees and contacts.
