Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson and Health Minister Audrey Gordon will lead the weekly COVID-19 press conference on Wednesday amid rising hospital admissions due to the virus.

CBC Manitoba will be webcasting the 2 p.m. press conference live here and on Facebook and CBC Gem.

Stefanson and Gordon will be joined by Dr. Jazz Atwal, the province’s deputy chief public health officer, and Dr. Joss Reimer, medical lead for the Manitoba COVID-19 Vaccine Implementation Working Group.

The province announced on Tuesday an increase of 40 more people admitted to hospitals, including three others in intensive care.

This brought the total number of current hospitalizations for COVID-19 to 418.

The province also reported 2,012 new cases of COVID-19, the majority of which were in the Winnipeg health region, which had 1,280.

Stefanson has been criticized for rarely speaking to the public about the pandemic, with social media hashtags #Whereheather and #wheresthepremier popping up.

Criticism intensified this week after 19 more deaths were reported on Monday and there was no word from the Prime Minister.

As of Tuesday, there were 96 COVID and non-COVID patients in intensive care units across the province. Manitoba’s critical care baseline capacity before the pandemic was 72.