`Significant outbreaks' in province

Public urged to follow health orders as COVID-19 case numbers surge

The provincial government is once again urging residents to take community transmission of COVID-19 seriously as Saskatchewan reported one new death and 197 new cases on Saturday and 351 new cases Sunday.

“Community transmission can happen quickly and impact multiple settings,” the province said in a news release.

Saskatchewan currently has 3,605 active cases, and the seven-day average of daily new cases sits at 250 or 20.6 new cases per 100,000 population.

In the release, the province highlighted several recent outbreaks that have caused a high number of cases, including an outbreak on a teenage hockey team that resulted in nine players and a coach testing positive, with other teams now forced to self-isolate.

A curling bonspiel led to positive cases on teams from several communities across the province.

More than 200 people were exposed at a recent funeral after several attendees tested positive. Seventeen nurses at a single hospital had to self-isolate after being in close contact with positive cases linked to sporting events and community transmission.

“The extensive amount of investigation and contact tracing as a result of these events causes delayed notification of possible exposure resulting in further transmission,” the release said.

“With significant outbreaks continuing to occur among larger gatherings and sporting events, the public is urged to follow the public health orders in place and are reminded these orders are enforceable.”

To combat this spread, new COVID-19 restrictions took effect on Friday, halting recreational team sports and activities, limiting capacity at all indoor public event gatherings and performance and gaming venues to 30 people and expanding where masks are mandatory.

A new outbreak was declared on Saturday at the Regina General Hospital in the hemodialysis unit.

A separate outbreak was reported on the same day at Prince Albert's Victoria Hospital in the dialysis unit.

An outbreak is confirmed when two or more people test positive for COVID-19 in a non-household setting.

The Saskatchewan Health Authority and the health ministry could not provide more details on Sunday about how widespread the hospital outbreaks are or whether it will affect services in either dialysis unit.

The most recent death was a person in the 80-plus age group and was from the north west zone. This brings Saskatchewan's total death toll to 45, with 20 of those in the month of November alone.

Regina accounts for 193 of the 548 new cases this weekend, and Saskatoon for 150.

The other cases are spread across the far north west (16), far north central (one), far north east (12), north west (33), north central (27), north east (12), central west (three), central east (20), south west (35), south central (15) and south east (20) zones.

Four COVID cases are still waiting for confirmed residence location.

Five cases with pending residence information have now been assigned to the north central (four) and north west (one) zones.

Out of the 115 people in hospital, 23 are in intensive care.

There were also 137 new recoveries on Saturday and 68 on Sunday.

There were 3,359 COVID-19 tests processed in Saskatchewan on Friday and 3,826 processed on Saturday.