Sask.'s daily case tally lowest since November
Just 56 infections reported Wednesday, but COVID variants remain a concern
Saskatchewan reported its smallest daily total of new COVID-19 infections since November on Wednesday, continuing a slow but hopeful trend of high case numbers declining.
That hope is tempered by the recent confirmation of more infectious viral variants in the province that some fear could cause new case numbers to rise if unchecked.
The Ministry of Health reported Wednesday that 2,155 tests had confirmed just 56 new positive cases, plus one from an out-of-province resident — the smallest daily increase since Nov. 4.
Saskatchewan has the highest per-capita rate of active known COVID -19 infections in the country, but that has fallen significantly in recent weeks. The seven-day average of new infections is at 146, down from a high of 321 per day in early January.
The virus continues to claim lives, with three new deaths reported in each of the Saskatoon, central east and north west parts of the province.
So far, 379 Saskatchewan residents with COVID-19 have lost their lives.
On Wednesday, 165 people were reportedly in hospital, 17 of whom were in intensive care.
The province said 81 per cent of long-term care residents and 76 per cent of personal care homes have received their first doses of a COVID-19 vaccine. A new shipment of vaccine had reportedly arrived in Saskatoon and Regina, with more doses en route to the north west, north central and south west zones. The south west is the only region where vaccine has yet to be administered.
Provincial officials are cautioning people against letting their guard down because of the potential for more transmissible variants to erase the gains made.
On Tuesday the province announced it had identified four new cases of such variants in samples from people tested at the end of January. Two people from Regina, who tested positive for a variant first identified in the U.K., had no known history of travel. A patient in Prince Albert also tested positive for the South African variant.
While there are no immediate plans to adjust public health measures, Premier Scott Moe said on Tuesday those variants will factor into decisions on relaxing restrictions like gathering limits, even if other indicators are moving the right way.
Chief medical health officer Dr. Saqib Shahab said he expects to see those variants with “increasing frequency.” “At this point, there's no indication that a variant of concern was identified as a result of an outbreak investigation” Shahab said. “But if it was, there may be some further, more extensive testing that would be required.”
The Ministry of Health says 120 samples are shipped per week from the Roy Romanow Provincial Laboratory in Regina to the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg for testing, returning sequencing results to Saskatchewan multiple times a week.
Moe said the RRPL will hopefully be able to do its own verification of those sequences by early March.