Saskatchewan has announced there are two new cases of COVID-19 as of Monday. The province now has 300 total cases.
The total number of cases includes two presumptive cases reported April 12, which have now been confirmed. There are no outstanding presumptive cases.
Premier Scott Moe believes Monday’s case numbers show that what the province is doing to limit the spread of COVID-19 is working. This has the premier saying it’s not a reason for complacency, but he says it gives Saskatchewan “cautious optimism.”
Moe admitted they can now start to think about what the process of re-opening Saskatchewan will look like.
“Any relaxing of restrictions would be in close consultation with Dr. Saqib Shahab. But I would say we would need to see a constant for some period of time,” said Moe. “We are starting to see that constant, but in saying that, we are only one outbreak away from interrupting those numbers.”
Moe mentioned that they will be developing their plan to re-open Saskatchewan plan this week with a goal of releasing it sometime next week if case numbers hold steady at where they are.
“As we begin to re-open, testing and contact tracing will be even more important,” stated Moe.
“It will be a phased approach – a methodical approach. When we get to this point in time when we open up a portion of the economy, test and contact trace, if the numbers don’t change or change very little, then we would look at a second phase.”
Of the total number of reported cases, 118 cases are considered active. 14 more people have recovered, bringing the provincial total to 178.
There are eight people in hospital who are all receiving inpatient care. No one is in intensive care.
Of the 300 cases in the province:
• 131 cases are travel related;
• 120 are contacts or linked to mass gatherings;
• 27 have no known exposures; and
• 22 are under investigation by local public health.
Overall in Saskatchewan:
• 33 of the cases are health care workers; however, the source of the infections may not be related to health care in all instances.
• 147 of the cases are from the Saskatoon area, 65 from the Regina area, 56 from the north, 15 from the south, 10 from the central region and seven from the far north.
• 21 cases involve people 19 years of age and under, while the remainder are adults.
• 129 cases are in the 20-44 age range; 100 are in the 45-64 age range; and 50 are in the 65-plus range.
• 53 per cent of the cases are males and 47 per cent are females.
• Four deaths related to COVID-19 have been reported to date.
To date, 19,804 COVID-19 tests have been performed in the province. Saskatchewan continues to have the second highest rate of testing per capita among provinces that have reported.
