Snowmobile rally behind latest jump in Sask. COVID-19 numbers
With 52 new cases reported over weekend, province’s total hits 156
Saskatchewan announced 22 new reported cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, bringing the province’s total to 156 after a weekend of extensive growth.
The number of identified cases in the province increased from 104 to 156 over the weekend, driven in part by 20 new cases stemming from a snowmobile rally in Christopher Lake on March 14.
In a news conference with reporters Saturday, Dr. Khami Chokani, a medical health officer with the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) in Prince Albert, said around 250 people attended the rally and 110 people were at the supper. The province has since updated that to say there may have been as many as 130 at the supper. They deployed additional staff to track down attendees, but have only reached 76 so far.
On Saturday, Chokani asked that anyone at the supper who has not been contacted call Healthline to help “fill in the gaps.”
The overall number of reported cases in Saskatchewan has tripled in the past week, from 52 on March 22 to 156 on March 29. Seventy-two of those cases are in Saskatoon, the most out in any listed jurisdiction.
While all the cases reported Sunday were traced back to either travel or mass gatherings, seven of the province’s cases are due to “community transmission,” meaning their source has not been identified.
Provincial chief medical health officer Dr. Saqib Shahab has warned the public to follow recommended precautions, like washing hands and limiting travel outside the home, even if there are no known cases in the community.
There are also signs of hope. At least eight of those cases have fully recovered from the virus and are no longer infectious, the province says. The Public Health Agency of Canada notes the total number of recoveries could be higher than reported because testing is being prioritized for potential new cases. Normally, people have to be tested twice 24 hours apart and have both results declared “negative” before they have officially recovered.
There are now five people with COVID-19 currently in hospital in the province, down from six on Saturday. And the number of tests performed each day by the Roy Romanow Provincial Laboratory in Regina has scaled up dramatically: the lab conducted 838 tests between Saturday and Sunday compared to only 157 on March 12, when the province’s first presumptive case was identified.
Officials have also cautioned that it will take time for the effects of physical distancing measures — like closing businesses and limiting gathering sizes — to be apparent. Recent data from B.C., where the virus first arrived in Canada, has shown similar measures may have reduced the rate of transmission
by as much as half.