Saskatchewan sees 42 new COVID-19 cases, 31 in the south region

The south region in Saskatchewan continues to see more COVID-19 cases.

In the Saskatchewan government’s update on Thursday, when 42 new cases of the virus were reported, 31 of those cases are in the south region.

Six of the new cases are in the central region, four are in the Saskatoon region and one is in the north.

This is the highest one-day number of cases recorded in Saskatchewan. The previous high was May 4, when 34 cases were reported.

Of the 923 total cases, 114 are considered to be active. A total of 794 people have recovered and 15 people have died.

There have been 339 cases from the far north, 204 in the Saskatoon area, 121 from the north, 115 in the south, 85 in the Regina area and 59 from the central region.

In a release, the Ministry of Health said there is a growing number of COVID-19 positive cases and rising level of transmission within communities and communal living venues in the southwest and west-central Saskatchewan.

Saskatchewan Health Authority CEO Scott Livingstone said during a media conference if a community wants to have the health authority on site to do testing, it will provide that opportunity.

“Once we are invited onto the colonies, and working with the Hutterian leadership to help support the work that they are doing, it’s not just testing those folks with symptoms but it’s going door to door and doing assessment with aggressive contact tracing,” Livingstone said in the province’s media update.

“Going door to door is much more successful. It allows us to identify cases early on (and) do aggressive contact tracing so within 48 hours we have 90 per cent of contacts traced. It’s a lot easier to do that in a contained community environment.”

While some cases have links to communal settings, it is crucial to note there are also several other, unrelated cases in the geographical area. This overall increased level of COVID-19 activity means there is an increased risk of transmission to the public.

Rural and Remote Health Minister Warren Kaeding said as of now, no new restrictions will be put in place but conversations are ongoing.

“We look at the northwest and the northwest had asked for (the extra restrictions) to occur in their communities and we were able to respond. Right now with the limitations we’ve got in place with the limitations we’ve put into long-term care, we’re going to monitor how this is unfolding,” Kaeding said.

As a result of an increased risk of COVID-19 in the southwest and west-central areas of Saskatchewan, visitation at Cypress Regional Hospital, long-term care homes and personal care homes in the area will be temporarily restricted.

Eleven people are in hospital, the highest hospital count yet. Nine people are receiving inpatient care — seven in Saskatoon, one in the south and one in the north. Two people are in intensive care; one in Saskatoon and one in the south.

With the southwest being a popular spot for travellers to spend their vacation, Livingstone said people need to be aware we are living with COVID on a daily basis.

“We just need to make sure people are reminded of the fact we’re still in a pandemic,” he said. “We still know how to best contain that disease and that is through public health restrictions, proper hand hygiene, social distancing (and) wearing a mask where you can do that.

“It’s always important for folks to be diligent and aware of what’s going on and even more so during the summer months as we enjoy being outside and at the same time, living with this virus that is going to be with us for months.”

Livingstone said the SHA has relied on people to adhere to the public health restrictions and coming for testing whether or not they have symptoms.

“As we have opened things up and have changed the rules, I’m not sure there’s more lack of adherence or just simply a matter of the fact that we’ve changed the rules,” he said.

“In many situations, it’s people living their day-to-day lives and still living with COVID. I’m not aware of any situation like a beach or, for example, the rallies that were held earlier on in June where people were not abiding by (social-distancing rules) where we had an influx of cases.”

Of the 923 cases in the province:

• 504 are community contacts (including mass gatherings);
• 180 cases are travellers;
• 134 have no known exposures; and,
• 105 are under investigation by local public health.

There were 1,157 new tests over the past 24 hours. To date, 78,851 COVID-19 tests have been performed in Saskatchewan.