Only 55 active COVID-19 cases now remaining in NHR, none in Flin Flon, Snow Lake district

Updated COVID-19 case data for the Northern Health Region (NHR) shows the number of active cases in the north is no longer in the hundreds. It's now in the dozens.

A series of case corrections have moved the number of active northern Manitoba COVID-19 cases from 206 as of Wednesday to only 55 as of July 22. The reason for the change is an update in marking cases previously considered "active" as "recovered", particularly in remote areas and on First Nations.

The new, updated data shows the NHR's lowest active case total in almost nine months - the last time northern Manitoba had this few active COVID-19 cases was Oct. 27, 2020, when the province also had 55 active cases. Within weeks, the region had ballooned to more than 1,700 active cases.

Before the update, The Pas/OCN/Kelsey had the most COVID-19 cases of any northern district, with 86 active cases. While the district still has the most cases in the north, the new accurate case details show 24 people in the district currently have the disease. Another 13 people have active COVID-19 cases in Shamattawa/York Factory/Tataskweyak/Split Lake. Aside from these two districts (which make up two-thirds of all active NHR cases), no other northern district has active cases in the double digits.

Seven northern districts, including the Flin Flon/Snow Lake/Cranberry Portage/Sherridon district, have no active COVID-19 cases at all as of July 22. 

The case data update extended province-wide, with Manitoba's active case load dropping from 916 active cases July 21 to 537 active cases July 22.  The province has a five-day test positivity rate of 3.3 per cent, with 105 people in Manitoba hospitals due to COVID-19.

While the Flin Flon/Snow Lake/Cranberry Portage/Sherridon district has no remaining COVID-19 cases, there are now two active cases in the far north east 2 health zone in Saskatchewan, which covers Creighton, Denare Beach, Pelican Narrows, Sandy Bay and other Saskatchewan communities near Flin Flon. Both cases have been found in the last week, with one case newly reported July 22.

For more in-depth district-by-district data for northern COVID-19 cases, see the table below.