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By paNOW Staff

COVID-19 report

COVID-19 death toll rises to four in Saskatchewan

Apr 11, 2020 | 1:31 PM

Another Saskatchewan resident has died from complications related to COVID-19. The death took place in Regina, and the person was in their 60’s. The province has now reported four deaths in total.

Chief medical officer Dr. Saqib Shahab said the person had underlying conditions. He also said all four of COVID-19-related deaths in the province had been to elderly people, with two people in their 70’s and one in their 80’s or older.

“This is a reminder that COVID-19 is a serious illness, especially in the elderly and those with underlying health conditions,” Shahab said in a teleconference on Saturday. “It may be a mild illness in those that are young, but it’s everyone’s responsibility to minimize [the spread] by physical distancing.”

The Saskatchewan Health Authority also reported four new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the province, while 11 people have recovered. Now, there are more total recoveries (147) than active cases (138).

“That is actually what we want to see. We want to see more recoveries than new cases, because that shows that it’s not only keeping the curve back, but we may at some point, be confident in saying we’re at the other end of our very low curve,” Shahab said. “Having said that, we have to be extremely cautious. We have to learn from the experience from other provinces in Canada and other parts of the world like the U.S., it’s too early to let our guard down.”

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Here are the updated COVID-19 numbers in the province of Saskatchewan as of April 11. (Aaron Schulze/northeastNOW)

While it may be encouraging data, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe isn’t ready to lift restrictions just yet. He’s “cautiously optimistic” about the high recoveries and low new numbers the province has seen in recent days, but is still concerned about people that are at higher risk to the virus.

“We still have a number of challenges that could be presented within the number of days and weeks ahead. When you think about our long-term care centres, our assisted living centres, our personal care homes across the province, we’re continually having discussions of ‘is there more that we can do?’ with our staff, that are going in and out of those facilities to make sure we’re not taking this virus into those facilities,” Moe said. “Is there more that we can do with these higher-risk populations, so that we can protect them better as we start to consider to potentially lift some restrictions in the weeks ahead.”

There are eight people in hospital in the province. Seven people are receiving inpatient care and one person is in intensive care.

No new cases came into the North Region where Prince Albert, Battlefords, and Melfort are. The North remains at 52 cases. The Far North, including La Ronge, had one new case to rise to seven overall.

Of the 289 cases in the province:

• 126 cases are travel-related;

• 106 are contacts or linked to mass gatherings;

• 22 have no known exposures; and

• 35 are under investigation by local public health.

COVID-19 cases per zone as of April 11. (submitted photo/Gov’t of Sask)

Overall in Saskatchewan:

• 30 of the cases are healthcare workers; however, the source of the infections may not be related to health care in all instances.

• 145 of the cases are from the Saskatoon area, 60 from the Regina area, 52 from the north, 15 from the south, 10 from the central region and seven from the far north.

• 18 cases involve people 19 years of age and under, while the remainder are adults.

• 126 cases are in the 20-44 age range; 96 are in the 45-64 age range; and 49 are in the 65-plus range.

• 54 per cent of the cases are males and 46 per cent are females.

• Four deaths related to COVID-19 have been reported to date.

To date, 18,448 COVID-19 tests have been performed in the province. Saskatchewan continues to have the second-highest rate of testing per capita among the provinces.

Stony Rapids with confirmed case

On Friday evening, the Athabasca Health Authority confirmed there was a positive case of COVID-19 in their community and said that person was in self-quarantine.

That is the fourth confirmed case in the Far North.

Meanwhile the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations (FSIN) issued a news release Saturday afternoon claiming a provincial health nurse was responsible for spreading COVID-19 to ‘Saskatchewan’s most isolated communities.’

Together with Fond du Lac and Black Lake First Nations, the FSIN demanded the province and the Athabasca Health Authority put better measures in place for health care staff who work in the far north and also supply northern communities with more personal protective equipment (PPE).

“A nurse drove up to Stony Rapids on Sunday and by Monday, was treating a number of our long-term care, elderly and vulnerable members at the hospital. We are demanding that more PPE immediately be shipped to our communities to protect our people,” said Fond du Lac First Nation Chief Louie Mercredi. “This infection was caused by provincial health care staff that were not tested before coming into our nations, they must ensure that our people are protected at all costs, as they will be held liable if this infection is not contained and continues to spread.”

FSIN Vice Chief David Pratt is also quoted in the release saying they need to train First Nations students to become nurses and doctors within their own communities, “so that when these pandemics or health care problems surface, we don’t need to bring outside staff into our nations, potentially infecting our most vulnerable.”

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panews@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @princealbertnow