Four more deaths, 181 new cases, several outbreaks in LTC

Saskatchewan's COVID-19 death toll has risen to 51 people, with more than half of those deaths occurring in the past month, as the province reported four new deaths and 181 new cases on Tuesday.

Three of the people who died were from Saskatoon and one was from the South zone. Three were in the 80-plus age category and one from Saskatoon was in the 60 to 79 age category.

The recent fatalities bring the number of deaths related to COVID-19 in November to 26, making it by far the province's deadliest month of the pandemic to date.

This comes as the province continues to battle outbreaks in a number of its long-term care facilities, including Luther Special Care Home in Saskatoon, which reported 40 residents and four staff members had tested positive as of Sunday, and Parkside Extendicare in Regina.

In question period on Tuesday, NDP critic for seniors Matt Love called on Premier Scott Moe to use some of the province's contingency fund to hire more staff in longterm care facilities.

Everett Hindley, minister of mental health, addictions, seniors and rural and remote health, said the province will look at potentially dipping into its contingency funds, while citing existing safety measures in health care facilities and the rapid testing being deployed to some facilities.

Hindley also pointed to the promise Moe made in the Throne Speech on Monday to set aside funds to hire 300 more continuing care aids — 180 of whom would be earmarked specifically for longterm care — in the next year's budget.

But Love said he wants to hear more than considerations and budget promises months away from being fulfilled.

“The answer that we're looking for is not thinking about making a plan. It's putting forth something that can have a real positive effect on what's happening today in the province,” he told the Leader-post after question period.

Love noted that other provinces have been examples of the consequences of having understaffed care homes.

Love said he has communicated with staff at care homes experiencing outbreaks, and what he hears from staff is that the pandemic — and now outbreaks — have made their jobs more difficult as they were already understaffed.

“It takes more time to provide these daily tasks when PPE is involved, when sanitation is involved, and so their jobs are already harder and now some of those workers are getting sick or needing to isolate, and so the number of staff available is challenging right now,” Love said.

“To wait until the next budget year to fill these positions, that's unacceptable.”

In the past two weeks, 27 longterm care homes and personal care homes have reported at least one case of COVID-19 in a staff member or resident, according to the provincial government's website. At least seven have reported three or more cases.

The seven-day average of daily new cases has risen slightly over Monday and now sits at 264, or 21.8 new cases per 100,000 population.

Saskatchewan now has 3,819 active cases, with 237 recoveries also being reported on Tuesday.

The 181 new cases reported are spread across the province, with 67 in Regina and 41 in Saskatoon, 12 in the Far North West, 15 in the Far North East, 10 in the North West, eight in the North Central, one in the North East, three in the Central West, two in the Central East, five in the South West, four in the South Central and seven in the South East zones.

Six cases have not yet been assigned residence information. Three cases that had been waiting for residence information have now been assigned to the North West (two) and Central East (one) zones.

There are currently 121 people in hospital with COVID-19, of which 24 are in intensive care — 13 in Saskatoon, seven in Regina and four in the North Central zones.

There were 2,431 COVID-19 tests processed in Saskatchewan on Monday.