The novel coronavirus. (Canadian Press)

By paNOW Staff

contact tracing underway

Province records 33 new COVID-19 cases, 20 people in hospital

Oct 23, 2020 | 2:06 PM

Each day in the past few weeks, Saskatchewan’s COVID-19 active case numbers continue to break its own records as it sits at 511 as of Friday.

With cases on the rise in Saskatchewan, the province’s chief medical officer Dr. Saqib Shahab addressed the surges.

He referenced the outbreaks in Yorkton back in September, and how communities in the area turned the corner by treating those that were infected and isolating close contacts. He’s wishing a similar situation can play out now to end outbreaks in the province’s biggest urban areas like Saskatoon, Regina, and Prince Albert.

“This is what we’re hoping will happen in P.A., Saskatoon, Regina, which have seen an increase in case numbers,” Shahab said during Friday’s press conference. “With people staying home when they’re sick, seeking testing if they’re symptomatic, having a list if they test positive for COVID to quickly hand over to public health, and public health contacts them, and contacts complying to public health direction to stay home for the 14-day period. I think these are going to be essential measures, beyond the overall general measures that we should all follow, to make sure our case levels remain low.”

When asked why the province has not put any new guidelines in place during this recent surge, other than lowering the private gatherings in homes to a limit of 15 people back on Oct. 16, Shahab said he wants the public to work together to bring the numbers down instead of having another lockdown.

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“I think at this point, our case numbers are such that we really need to bring this down as a collective effort,” Shahab said. “We all know that if we went into a total lockdown, our case numbers would go down. We all know that from March and April, but there’s a tremendous cost to that in terms of mental health, economic impact, livelihoods, all kinds [of things]. And that’s where we don’t want to go.”

Checking the numbers

The province has recorded 33 new cases of COVID-19, and 31 recoveries.

The provincial total is now at 2,591 cases.

The new cases are located in the Far North West (one), North West (three), North Central (five), North East (four), Saskatoon (four), Central East (three), Regina (nine), and South East (four) zones.

There are public health investigation underway to determine the source of transmission for all new cases. Thirty-seven confirmed cases in Saskatoon are connected to a single nightclub.

There are 20 people in hospital. Sixteen are receiving inpatient care with nine in the Saskatoon zone, one in the Regina zone, one in the North West zone, and five in the North Central zone.

There are four people in intensive care with three in Saskatoon and one in Regina.

Of the total cases, there are 511 active cases. There have been a total of 2,055 recoveries.

Of the total cases, 338 are travellers, 1,299 are community contacts (including mass gatherings), 690 have no known exposures, and 264 are under investigation by local public health.

Overall in the province, 82 cases are healthcare workers (although not all were sourced from work) and 482 cases involve people 19 and under.

There are 912 cases in the 20 to 39 age range, 751 are in the 40 to 59 age range, 369 in the 60 to 79 age range, and 77 are in the 80-plus age range.

Fifty-one per cent of cases are females and 49 per cent are males.

There have been 25 COVID-19 related deaths reported to date.

For more data on a specific region in the province visit the Government of Saskatchewan’s dashboard.

The latest cases of COVID-19 in Saskatchewan as of Oct. 23. (submitted photo/SHA)

There are:

• 563 cases are from the Saskatoon area
• 480 cases are from the south area (228 south west, 211 south central, 41 south east)
• 476 cases are from the north area (162 north west, 212 north central, 102 north east)
• 425 cases are from the far north area (375 far north west, 0 far north central, 50 far north east)
• 352 cases are from the central area (196 central west, 156 central east)
• 293 cases are from the Regina area
• Two cases have pending residence location

To date, the province has performed 242,500 COVID-19 tests. Yesterday there were 2,297 tests performed.

A graph of the latest COVID cases as of Oct. 23. (Aaron Schulze/northeastNOW Staff)

NITHA communities

The Northern Inter-Tribal Health Authority released their daily COVID-19 update that are specific to their communities.

According to their Facebook page, there are three cases active in the Far North West, and 22 cases active in the Far North East.

There are 49 cases active in the North Central, and 19 cases are active in the North East, one of which is in hospital.

Ninety-one cases (49 per cent) have recovered.

NITHA is comprised of the Prince Albert Grand Council, Meadow Lake Tribal Council, Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation, and Lac La Ronge Indian Band.

The latest numbers specific to NITHA communities as of Oct. 23. (Submitted photo/NITHA)

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panews@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @princealbertnow