The province is sharing that the five-day COVID-19 test positivity rate is increasing, but cautions that the increase could be due to lower-than-average testing volumes.

Officials are sharing that there are 30 new cases of COVID-19 in Manitoba, making it the second-highest daily total since April 1. They say many of today's new cases come from a cluster in Brandon.

The current five-day COVID-19 test positivity rate is 0.9 per cent. Yesterday it was 0.44 per cent.

One of the new COVID-19 cases announced by officials is from Winnipeg, with 18 new cases from the Prairie Mountain Health region and 11 new cases in the Southern Health – Santé Sud health region.

In the Prairie Mountain Health region, there are three males between the ages of 10 and 19 with the virus, a girl between the ages of zero and nine, and a boy between the ages of zero and nine with the virus.

In the Southern Health – Santé Sud health region, there is one male and one female between the ages of zero and nine with the virus, and one male aged between 10 and 19.

There are now 118 active cases of COVID-19 in Manitoba, and 348 individuals have recovered. Almost one-quarter of Manitoba's total number of COVID-19 cases that have been identified since March are currently active cases.

Manitoba's Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Brent Roussin says the numbers are a reminder that COVID-19 "is not done with us."

"We've been here before, and we've gotten ourselves out of this by those fundamental precautions," he says, adding the most important advice is staying home when you're ill, practicing good hand hygiene and physical distancing (two metres apart). If not able to distance, he notes wearing a mask is an additional recommendation.

Roussin was on a holiday in Winnipeg but held a conference to update the public on the current situation and answer questions regarding the new cases. He adds that he will be cutting his holiday short, as he "has some work to do."

"We are not done with this virus," Roussin says. "It just happens that a number of our clusters are in the rural area."

Roussin says public shaming people who've contracted COVID-19 does not help, "but impairs public health's ability to fight this pandemic."

"So please, everyone, be kind... Manitobans didn't panic when we were in a similar spot and we're not going to panic now. We're going to stick to those fundamentals."

Minister Cameron Friessen says that he is seeing Manitobans going to great lengths to keep staff and customers safe.

Ten people are now in hospital with five individuals in intensive care with COVID-19.

The total number of fatalities is remaining at eight.

An additional 564 laboratory tests were completed on Wednesday, bringing the total number of tests completed since early February to 95,547.

Public health officials are advising that potential exposure to COVID-19 may have occurred on Air Canada flight AC 8595 from Montreal to Winnipeg (rows 16 to 22) on July 29.

Individuals in the affected seats on these flights are advised to self-isolate for 14 days following the flight and monitor for symptoms. Passengers on these flights, but not in the affected seats, should self-monitor for symptoms and self-isolate if they develop.

Additional information about flights and affected rows is updated on the provincial website when available. While public health assesses the risk to others as low, it is sharing this information to ensure people are aware and know to seek testing if symptoms develop.