3 outbreaks declared in Yorkton; Sask. reports 14 new COVID cases, 9 recoveries

Three COVID-19 outbreaks have been declared in Yorkton and the province’s top doctor says cases could keep going up.

The Saskatchewan government said Monday there have been outbreaks at Yorkton Regional High School, the Pumphouse Athletic Club and the Yorkton Regional Health Centre.

“As in all parts of Saskatchewan, Yorkton residents or individuals who have visited the area should remain vigilant and follow all public health advice,” the government said in the release.

A positive test at the Yorkton RCMP detachment also forced its closure for two weeks.

Dr. Saqib Shahab, the province’s chief medical health officer, said many of the 29 cases reported Sunday and Monday were linked to the ongoing investigations in Yorkton.

Shahab said the three outbreaks were interrelated with the primary link to the gym, and secondary links to the school and health centre. He also said, at this time, there doesn’t appear to have been transmission in either the school or health centre.

The Saskatchewan Health Authority is just in the third day of investigations on this but Shahab explained the investigation had grown large.

“It is a rapidly evolving investigation with up to 100 contacts so far, which may continue to grow,” Shahab said.

The priority right now is on case finding and contact tracing, according to Shahab, as officials want to get everyone isolated and tested who needs to be in order to to cut off transmission.

“We will likely see more cases in Yorkton because now they’re entering active case contact finding and targeting testing for people who may have been close contacts to the three interlinked investigations,” said Shahab.

Shahab said finding case contacts is an important part of the investigation because they want to keep the number of cases without a known source of exposure down. He said that’s a metric to watch.

As long as the investigators can identify transmission chains, Shahab said they wouldn’t need to put in broader health measures to deal with outbreaks. He said if the case numbers grow, the cases without a source of exposure grow and the test positivity rates grow, the province will lean on the messaging about hand-washing and masks.

“But if these measures fail to address the case numbers, then further specific interventions may have to be considered as they are being considered in other provinces,” said Shahab.

Shahab mentioned several times that everyone in the province needs to keep doing what they have for the past six months: Washing their hands, distancing, and wearing a mask indoors.

“And that’s especially important when you go into a business like a retail location because staff there are wearing a mask to protect you and the least we can do is to wear a mask to protect others who are there to either provide services in a retail environment or in another place of business,” said Shahab.

The numbers

The province revealed there were 14 new cases of COVID-19, with seven in the central-east area, three each in the Regina and Saskatoon zones and one in the far northwest.

One case reported Sunday that didn’t have a known location has been assigned to the Regina region.

The total number of reported cases in Saskatchewan is now 1,892.

There were nine recoveries reported, increasing that total so far to 1,719. To date, 24 people have died in the province after testing positive for COVID-19.

There are 149 active cases being reported.

Eight people are receiving inpatient care in hospital, with seven in Saskatoon and one in Regina.

The number of health-care workers who have been infected rose by three Monday, to 72.

There were 2,236 tests done in Saskatchewan on Sunday, increasing the total so far to 188,068.

So far, there have been 441 cases from the south area (222 southwest, 200 south-central, 19 southeast), 385 from the Saskatoon zone, 359 in the far north (350 far northwest, nine far northeast), 276 in the north area (132 northwest, 77 north-central, 67 northeast), 255 from the central zone (175 central-west, 80 central-east) and 176 in the Regina region.

There have been 122 new cases reported in the Saskatoon area since the start of September. The central zone has reported 54 cases this month and the Regina region has recorded 40.

The total comprises 938 community contacts, 544 cases without any known exposure, 280 travellers and 130 people who remain under investigation by local public health officials.

There have been 618 cases in the 20-to-39 age range, 582 from age 40 to 59, 324 involving people 19 and under, 306 between the ages of 60 and 79, and 62 aged 80 and over.