COVID-19 in Sask: Far north now has 25 active cases, most in province

Ten more cases of COVID-19 have been reported in Saskatchewan Friday, including additional cases in the far north. 

There are now 25 active cases in the far north, which makes it the most active region in the province. The Saskatoon and Regina areas have both seen a decrease from the day before.

One of Friday's new cases is presumptive, with final test results pending.

There have now been 341 total cases reported since March, when the first case was detected in the province. A presumptive case announced on Wednesday has since been confirmed by a lab, the province said in a news release.

Five people are in hospital, including two in intensive care. Ten more people have since recovered since Thursday, taking the total recoveries up to 280.

Fifty-seven cases are currently active. On top of the 25 in the far north, Saskatoon has 13 active cases, Regina has nine, the north has seven, the south has one and the central region has two.

The number of known deaths from COVID-19 in the province remains at four.

There are 136 cases related to travel, 145 linked to close contact or large gatherings, 34 with no known exposure and another 26 cases under investigation.

There were 714 tests conducted on Thursday, taking the number up to 26,586 COVID-19 tests in the province. Premier Scott Moe has tasked the Roy Romanow Provincial Laboratory with testing up to 1,500 samples per day by the end of April.

RCMP lay one charge

RCMP say they received 78 calls between last Friday and Thursday about COVID-19. They said one charge was laid.

A news release said 43 of the calls were related to gatherings of more than 10 people. That's contrary to a public health order banning gatherings of more than 10 people, except when they are living together.

Eight calls were related to instances of someone allegedly refusing to self-isolate. The remaining 27 calls were "related" to COVID-19 in some way but police did not elaborate.