Shahab urges residents to consider ‘new bubbles’ as school nears

With students in Saskatchewan about to return to school and teachers set to return to work, some people in the province are about to have more contact with others than they have since March.

As that happens, the province’s chief medical health officer is urging residents to shrink their circles to protect against the potential spread of COVID-19.

“We’ve had a fantastic summer, we’ve enjoyed lots of outdoor activities, but it’s time to think about our summer bubble and how that may have to change,” Dr. Saqib Shahab said.

“Even if we don’t have a school-aged child, our extended virtual family bubble may include children, teachers, school staff and their families. Now is the time to examine our contacts and consider the new bubbles that are about to be created by classrooms and fall activities.”

Saskatchewan reported two new COVID-19 cases and 16 more recoveries Friday, dropping the number of active cases in the province to 44.

It’s the lowest total since there were 40 active cases reported on July 11.

Shahab said Saskatchewan now has the lowest active case rate in Western Canada at five cases per 100,000 residents. The current rate across Canada is 13 active cases per 100,000 population.

To keep Saskatchewan’s rate that low, Shahab recommended residents try to keep their number of close contacts to five or under. That would assist students and teachers as they head into schools.

Parents received packages from the Ministry of Education on Thursday that laid out what will happen if someone tests positive in a school, what will constitute an outbreak and how testing protocols will work.

Asked if an outbreak in a school setting is inevitable, Shahab said schools reflect community transmission — and that bodes well for Saskatchewan, given its current numbers.

“The fact that we have low community transmission is the most important thing we can do to minimize the chance of a case or a cluster emerging in schools,” he said. “That’s the first thing.

“Secondly, we have also learned that in general, transmission is not as efficient in younger children as it is in adults, so even though we’ve had occasional small clusters in workplaces, while we do expect to see occasional clusters in schools, the evidence we have seen is that they will be less common than what we’ve seen in workplaces.”

Health officials also are confident in the back-to-school plan because the case numbers in Saskatchewan remained relatively low as sectors of the economy were gradually restarted.

“We have learned a lot from other sections that have reopened and we have applied all those learnings to schools,” Shahab said. “As we reopen, we’ll continue to learn not just from our own experience but from the experience of other jurisdictions in Canada with whom we are in constant communication.”

A look at the numbers

The new cases reported Friday — one in the far northwest and one in the Saskatoon area — increase the total in the province to date to 1,611.

The case in the far north is the region’s first new reported case since Aug. 4.

There have been 1,543 recoveries recorded in Saskatchewan so far. To date, 24 residents of the province have died after testing positive for COVID-19.

Three people are in hospital in Saskatoon, including two in intensive care.

The total number of cases includes 824 community contacts, 482 without any known exposures, 234 travellers, and 71 who are being investigated by local public health officials.

So far, 66 Saskatchewan health-care workers have tested positive for the virus.

There have been 413 cases from the south area (213 southwest, 189 south-central, 11 southeast), 353 in the far north region (347 far northwest, six far northeast), 262 from the north zone (128 northwest, 68 north-central, 66 northeast), 257 in the Saskatoon area, 194 from the central area (161 central-west, 33 central-east), 132 in the Regina area.

The total comprises 518 cases in the 20-to-39 age range, 493 between the ages of 40 and 59, 277 in the 60-to-79 range, 266 involving people 19 and under, and 57 among people aged 80 and over.

The 1,561 tests done in the province Thursday increased the total to date to 136,333.

Premier Scott Moe recently said the government was looking to expand testing capacity to 4,000 per day and to open drive-through testing facilities in Regina and Saskatoon.

During Friday’s conference call, Saskatchewan Health Authority CEO Scott Livingstone said the SHA is looking at methods to handle whatever number of cases it’s asked to handle. He added the authority is looking at sites in Regina and Saskatoon for the drive-through testing.