Flin Flon district drops to one active case, cases climb in Thompson, Island Lake districts

Another day of good news on the COVID-19 front for Flin Flon - cases stayed in the double digits province-wide and the district covering Flin Flon is down to one active case.

Ninety new cases were reported in Manitoba Thursday, 43 of which were found in northern Manitoba. The Northern Health Region (NHR) now has 727 active COVID-19 cases, just under half of the 1,582 active cases in Manitoba.

Out of those regions, few are doing as well presently as the Flin Flon/Snow Lake/Cranberry Portage/Sherridon district. The district is now down to one active case remaining. The NHR only has one district with no active cases - the Pukatawagan/Mathias Colomb Cree Nation district, located just north of the Flin Flon district.

It is in other northern locales where cases are being reported - specificially in the Island Lake and Thompson/Mystery Lake districts. Island Lake now sits at 389 active cases, including 12 new cases announced Thursday. The Thompson district is also reporting new cases, finding another 11 in the district Thursday. There are currently 79 people in the Thompson district with active COVID-19 cases.

A new outbreak in Thompson was also reported by the provincial government Thursday - this time, at the Grassroots Early Learning and Child Care Centre in Thompson. There are now four active outbreaks in the NHR - two in Thompson (the Grassroots centre and Wapanohk Community School) and two others in The Pas (St. Paul's Personal Care Home and the dialysis unit at St. Anthony's General Hospital.) Two residents of the St. Paul's Centre tested positive during this latest outbreak - one of whom remains positive according to provincial data.

Thompson has seen several cases reported in local schools - as of Feb. 9 in the past two weeks, three cases have been connected to R.D. Parker Collegiate, the community's high school, with five connected to Wapanohk, four at Riverside School and one each at Burntwood Elementary School, Deerwood School and Westwood Elementary.

A fifth outbreak within northern Manitoba has been announced at Pauingassi First Nation, but while the outbreak is listed under the NHR category on the provincial website, Pauingassi is not covered by the NHR - the area of Pauingassi is covered by the Interlake-Eastern Regional Health Authority.

Seven new cases were found in the Cross Lake/Pimicikamak district, with another five in The Pas/OCN/Kelsey. For further information about cases in northern locales, see below.

Manitoba-wide COVID-19 cases are dropping, with the province now at its lowest active case levels since October. There are 244 people in Manitoba hospitals due to COVID-19, 32 of whom are in intensive care. Since the pandemic began, 862 people in the province have died due to COVID-19.

Saskatchewan

The province next-door is also showing some signs of progress. Saskatchewan's number of active cases shrank to 114 Thursday, with three cases in the far north east health zone. Two of those cases were reported in the far north east 2 health zone, where 22 people have active cases of COVID-19. The far north east 2 health zone contains Creighton, Denare Beach, Pelican Narrows, Sandy Bay and other communities near Flin Flon.