Sask. announces two more COVID-19-related deaths

Two more Saskatchewan residents have died due to complications from COVID-19.

One individual was in their 60s and the other was in their 70s. Both were residents of the far north.

That increases the number of fatalities in the province to date to 13. The deaths announced Monday are the first in the province since May 31.

The Government of Saskatchewan announced four new cases Monday — the highest single-day total since there were four on May 30.

Three of the new cases are in Saskatoon and one is in the far north.

Dr. Saqib Shahab, the province’s chief medical health officer, said three of four recently confirmed cases in Saskatchewan were linked either directly or indirectly to international travel.

It’s unclear if those travellers were on the flights into Saskatoon that were flagged by the federal government on Monday.

“Individuals are still arriving from international destinations for various reasons. They’re returning expats or other situations and that is to be expected,” Shahab said during a media conference call.

“It’s clear that we will continue to see cases through occasional importation internationally or from other provinces and obviously within Saskatchewan as well.”

Premier Scott Moe added border travel has been occurring during the pandemic, but has been limited to essential workers and repatriation flights.

“There has been some border travel, some crossing of our international and provincial borders, as we have been finding our way through our response to the COVID-19 pandemic,” Moe said.

“As we open up our economy, it only stands to reason that there will be additional travel between our provinces and increasingly some additional international travel.”

There now have been 654 COVID-19 cases in the province to date. There was one more recovery reported, increasing that total to 624.

One person is in intensive care in Saskatoon.

There currently are 17 active cases in the province — six in the far north, five in Saskatoon, four in Regina, one in the north and one in the south. The central region doesn’t have any active cases.

Of the total number of cases, 393 are community contacts, 144 are travellers, 79 don’t have any known exposures and 38 are under investigation by local public health officials.

So far, 51 health-care workers have contracted the virus.

There have been 260 cases in the far north, 173 from the Saskatoon area, 112 in the north, 80 in the Regina area, 17 from the south and 12 from the central region.

The total includes 232 cases in the 20-to-39 age range, 199 between the ages of 40 and 59, 107 from 60 to 79 years of age, 98 involving people 19 years of age and under, and 18 in the 80-and-over range.

There were 536 tests done in the province Sunday, increasing the total so far to 52,229.

Emergency rooms reopening

Eight of the 12 regional emergency rooms that were temporarily closed by the Saskatchewan Health Authority to prepare for a possible surge in COVID-19 cases will soon be reopening.

The ER’s had been converted to alternate level of care sites to protect against outbreaks in the medical facilities.

The timeline for the reopenings laid out by the government Monday was:

• Friday — Kerrobert;
• June 16 — Leader and Arcola;
• June 18 –- Preeceville;
• June 22 -– Biggar and Oxbow;
• June 24 — Davidson; and,
• June 25 – Herbert.

The government stressed those dates are “subject to the status of active COVID-19-positive cases and ability to meet all required safety criteria and human resourcing requirements for reopening.”

The SHA is still working on restoring ER service in Broadview, Radville, Lanigan and Wolseley.