No new COVID-19 cases Monday

The Victoria Day long weekend coincided with a reprieve in COVID -19 cases across Saskatchewan.

The province announced no new confirmed cases on Monday after just two were reported on the weekend (one in the far north on Sunday and one in Saskatoon on Saturday).

Eleven more people had recovered Monday, bringing the provincial total to 455. There were 25 recoveries on Saturday and 11 on Sunday for a total of 47 over the long weekend.

The reprieve comes as more businesses, including retail and select personal care services, are set to unlock their doors Tuesday for Phase 2 of the Re-open Saskatchewan plan.

The province’s total number of reported COVID-19 cases is 592, with 131 of them considered active.

No new cases were detected in the community of La Loche, which has been struggling with an outbreak over the past couple of weeks, although the far north region still has 110 active cases.

Meanwhile, after a patient at the Pasqua Hospital in Regina tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday, an investigation found that the case was acquired in the community and is not a hospital outbreak. So far all other staff and contacts of the patient have tested negative.

On Friday, the Saskatchewan Health Authority said 72 people had been identified as contacts of the patient, and two were showing symptoms.

The SHA also said in an email Friday evening that a presumptive case of COVID -19 in Lac La Ronge was negative.

Overall, there are currently five people in hospital across Saskatchewan. Two are receiving in-patient care, one in Saskatoon and one in Regina, and three are in intensive care, all in Saskatoon.

Hospitalizations are counted under the location of the hospital, not the patient’s residence.

Of the 592 cases in the province, 139 cases are travellers, 321 are community contacts (including mass gatherings), 69 have no known exposures, and 63 are under investigation.

The Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) announced Saturday that the outbreak in the longterm care facility in the La Loche Health Centre is over.

The outbreak had been declared on April 17.

No new COVID-19 cases have been found in the long-term care facility in the last 28 days, according to an email statement the SHA sent out Saturday afternoon.

Dr. Rim Zayed, northern medical health officer for the SHA, reminded the La Loche community in the statement that precautions remain in place.

“This includes extensive doorto-door testing, mobile testing and aggressive contact tracing,” the statement said.