Murray Wood: Who's hot and who's not
Every Friday, Murray Wood takes a look at the week's news and decides who's hot and who's not. This week's list includes...
The number of reported recoveries from COVID-19 in Saskatchewan surpassed 1,400 on Tuesday.
In its daily update, the provincial government announced there had been 16 more recoveries recorded, increasing the total so far in Saskatchewan to 1,403.
For a second straight day, there was just one new case reported. That case, located in the Saskatoon zone, increased the total number in the province so far to 1,582.
To date, 22 people have died due to complications from COVID-19 in the province.
There are 157 active cases in Saskatchewan, 107 of which are in communal living settings.
Four people are receiving inpatient care in hospital, with two in the southwest zone, one in Saskatoon and one in Regina. Four people are in intensive care in Saskatoon.
Of the total number of cases, 809 are community contacts, 472 don’t have any known exposures, 226 are travellers, and 75 remain under investigation by local public health officials.
The province’s total includes 64 health-care workers.
There have been 405 cases from the south area (207 southwest, 187 south-central, 11 southeast), 352 in the far north area (346 far northwest, six far northeast), 252 from the north area (119 northwest, 68 north-central, 65 northeast), 248 in the Saskatoon area, 194 from the central area (161 central-west, 33 central-east), and 131 in the Regina area.
The total comprises 505 cases in the 20-to-39 age range, 491 between the ages of 40 and 59, 272 in the 60-to-79 age range, 259 involving people 19 and under, and 55 in the 80-and-over range.
There were 931 tests done in the province Monday, raising the total to date to 124,219.
Angus Reid polling numbers
According to a new Angus Reid Institute poll, nearly half of the 1,511 Canadians surveyed (around 47 per cent) fall into what are called “Infection Fighters,” the group that follows all suggested protocols to limit the spread of COVID-19.
More than one-third of those polled (around 36 per cent) are in the “Inconsistent” group. That section of the population takes what the institute called in a media release “a more half-in, half-out approach to flattening the curve.”
The final group — what the institute called the “Cynical Spreaders” — comprised about 18 per cent of the total.
Members of that group “have expanded their social circles, don’t physically distance and are ambivalent towards hand-washing and mask-wearing.”
The institute also said that group “professes a clear dislike for the way public health officials and political leaders have handled the pandemic.”
The breakdown was different in Saskatchewan, where 130 people were polled.
Here, 38 per cent of the respondents were put in the Inconsistent group, 32 per cent were deemed Infection Fighters and 30 per cent were Cynical Spreaders.
More than 90 per cent of Infection Fighters surveyed nationally said they wear masks indoors, compared to 63 per cent of members of the Inconsistent group, and 15 per cent of those classified as Cynical Spreaders.
The poll also found that 75 per cent of Cynical Spreaders engage in five or more of the 10 potential virus-spreading behaviours noted by the institute (not washing hands, not social distancing, not wearing a mask, and so on) while Infection Fighters engage in either one or zero of those behaviours.
