Thread by @bkives

Manitoba announced 272 new cases of #COVID19 and 2 more deaths on Wednesday, May 5, 2021.

Active cases: 2,780
Total caseload: 40,085
Recovered: 36,323
Deaths: 982

Manitoba #COVID19 patients in hospital: 184 (up two)

In ICU: 47 (unchanged)

Five-day Manitoba #COVID19 test-positivity rate: 8.8 per cent (up 0.3 percentage points)

Winnipeg rate: 9.2 per cent

Tests completed Tuesday: 2,803

Regional breakdown of new Manitoba #COVID19 cases:

182 Winnipeg
37 Prairie Mountain
20 Interlake-Eastern
20 Southern
13 Northern

The latest Manitobans to succumb to #COVID19:

• A Winnipeg man in his 60s
• A Winnipeg woman in her 70s who contracted the B117

Manitoba identified 84 new variant-of-concern cases from previous positive cases.

Active VOC cases: 956
Total: 2,789
Recovered: 1,821
Deaths: 12

VOCs down to 34% of active cases

Seven-day average daily case count in Manitoba rises to 271.

Manitoba recorded another 8,081 #COVID19 vaccine doses Tuesday.

Manitobans with at least 1 shot: 431,430
Proportion of Manitobans 18 and up at least partly immunized: 40.1%

Fully immunized: 74,056
Proportion fully immunized: 6.9%

Manitobans aged 18 and up: ~1,074,581

Botha and Reimer are now repeating on camera what Botha unveiled this morning: Changes to vaccine eligibility (45 and up), plans for everyone else 18 and up and the potential vaccination of teens.

Reimer: MB will decide soon how teens will be vaccinated.

Reimer says MB is also working on final list of priority for second doses.

Again, immunocompromised people and people with serious medical conditions will be at front of line for second doses.

After that, again, second doses will depend on when you got your first dose.

Reimer once again urges anyone eligible for AZ to get it and not wait for Pfizer or Moderna.

Get protected. Risk of exposure is high, she says.

Reimer praises the following communities for achieving first-dose immunization rates above 60 per cent already:

- Island Lake
- Norway House
- Cross Lake/Pimicikimak
- Churchill
- Gimli

Total ICU patients - COVID and non-COVID - drops by three to 105 patients today.

- 47 hospitalized for COVID
- 20 of those 47 patients are under age 50

Reimer on vaccinating teens 12-17:

MB will follow existing processes for parental consent, which include some cases where medical professionals consider patient wishes in absence of parent.

No update on the immunization cards beyond the online records available now.

Reimer says vaccine may be offered to kids under 12 in the future

Reimer has no update about teacher vaccinations, outside high-priority areas.

Reimer says Manitoba tries to follow NACI recommendations and will not say with 100 per cent certainty whether kids aged 12-17 will be vaccinated.

She says she would be surprised if that does not happen, however.

Translation: Teens are very likely getting vaccinated, but the vaccine team is hedging its bet a little.

Why hedge? The National Advisory Committee on Immunization could surprise Manitoba and other provinces planning to immunize teens.

That is that for today.