Eight new COVID-19 cases bring total active cases to 67

Saskatchewan reported eight new COVID -19 cases on Friday, including seven in the far northern region.

The one other case reported was in the Saskatoon area. There were no new cases in the southern region, according to a government news release. An outbreak announced Wednesday in two Hutterite colonies in that region was responsible for 14 new cases officially included in Thursday’s count.

The government had initially said it was investigating a possible connection to Alberta.

The Health Ministry was unable to release any additional details on the investigation when asked on Friday.

But Saskatchewan’s southern region did report two new hospitalizations, though the Health Ministry would not confirm whether they were related to the Hutterite outbreaks. There is also one intensive care hospitalization in Saskatoon.

There are six other presumptively positive cases from the La Loche area that were announced Thursday on a community Facebook page, but have not yet been confirmed by the Saskatchewan Health Authority ’s Roy Romanow Provincial Laboratory in Regina.

So far, 716 COVID -19 cases have been reported in Saskatchewan over the course of the pandemic. But only 67 are considered active. No new recoveries were announced on Friday.

The government is continuing to remind residents that testing is available to anyone now working outside their home or returning to work as part of the Re-open Saskatchewan plan.

Testing is also open to immunocompromised individuals and those admitted to acute care for more than 24 hours.

Though Saskatchewan boasted one of the higher testing rates in Canada during the early stages of the pandemic, it has fallen significantly behind the national average in testing rates over recent weeks.

As of Friday, there had been 58,611 tests performed in the province. Expressed as a rate, there had been 43,972 per million population as of Thursday. The average for Canada as a whole was 61,066 that day.

Of the 716 cases that have so far been confirmed in Saskatchewan, 150 are travellers and 422 are community contacts, including for mass gatherings. Eighty-nine have no known exposures and 55 are under investigation by local public health.