The provincial government has announced five new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday. Two of the new cases are in the South region, one new case in the Saskatoon region and one each in both the Far North and Central regions.
It brings the total of reported cases in Saskatchewan to 813 and 48 active.
Four people have recovered from the virus for a total of 750 recoveries.
Five people are in hospital with two individuals receiving inpatient care in Northern Saskatchewan and two in Saskatoon. There is also now one person in ICU in Saskatoon.
Of the 813 cases in the province:
- 168 cases are travellers;
- 484 are community contacts (including mass gatherings);
- 114 have no known exposures; and
- 47 are under investigation by local public health.
The Saskatchewan Health Authority is also warning residents travelling to and from, and living in, Prince Albert and the surrounding area of an increase in COVID-19 illnesses in the community. SHA officials have moved to restrict visitation at Victoria Hospital and long-term care homes, including Herb Bassett Home, Pineview Terrace and Mont St. Joseph Home.
During the province’s COVID-19 update Thursday, Saskatchewan Chief Medical Health Officer, Dr. Saqib Shahab said that Saskatchewan residents continue to do a good job of curbing the spread of COVID-19.
While the daily number of cases remains low, Shahab says that small clusters or outbreaks will continue to happen. He adds that when new cases are announced, it’s important to keep working together.
“I think we just need to be calm about it, not stigmatize or point fingers at each other,” said Shahab. “This will continue to happen for the next several months, we just need to take it in our stride, and accept that COVID-19 is something as routine as getting flu in the winter.”
Shahab stressed that as businesses continue to reopen and people are out enjoying the summer, it’s important for us to try and keep the amount of people we come into contact with as low as possible.
“As we go out and about, if we were to become symptomatic, we should not be able to name a lot of people who were closer than two meters,” said Shahab. “I think that’s really important because, if our number of contacts start increasing, the risk of transmission starts increasing as well.”
He added that the better the province can trace contacts of positive cases, the easier it will be to contain the spread without having to go back into lockdown.
He said that the use of masks is still optional, it may be a good idea to get used to them, just in case we have to use them in the winter.
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