COVID-19 in Sask.: Province announces death in north region, 21 new cases

Another person in Saskatchewan has died after testing positive for COVID-19, the province announced on Wednesday. The person was a resident in the north region who had been in their 60s. 

Dr. Saqib Shahab, the Saskatchewan's chief medical health officer, said the province won't be revealing more specific information on the location of the death because the information serves no public health purpose.

"Death happens, unfortunately, related to age and underlying risk factors," Shahab said. "In other jurisdictions, they have rarely happened in younger age groups, so no one is immune from serious outcomes and deaths."

Seven people have died in Saskatchewan after being diagnosed with COVID-19 since it was first detected in March. 

Two people in the 60 to 69 age group, two in the 70 to 79 age group and three in the 80+ age group have died.

"While we want to prevent transmission in any setting, we especially want to protect those who are more vulnerable," Shahab said.

Spike in cases 'normal'

There were also 21 more cases of COVID-19 reported in the province, after seven cases were announced on Tuesday and zero on Monday.

Twenty-four more people have recovered. There have been 494 recoveries from the novel coronavirus. 

There were 345 tests processed by the province on Tuesday. The province has conducted 41,951 in total.

Scott Livingstone, CEO of the Saskatchewan Health Authority, said the province's current testing strategy is serving it well, given how wide open criteria for testing is.

"I think that people need to realize that this is going to be our norm for months," Livingstone said. "We are going to see case numbers like this come up and down."

Cases being announced in places where the province is actively tracing and testing is "good news," he added. 

"We're not seeing people with symptoms show up, even though we have probably one of the broadest symptom checklists," Livingstone said. "You know, if you have the sniffles, you can go in for COVID testing."

Even when the province was processing more than 1,000 COVID-19 tests in a day, the positivity rate was "low" — , about two or three per cent — has remained so, according to Shahab.

Cases in province

There are 16 new cases in the far north region, nine in La Loche area and six in the Beauval area. There are four cases in the north region and a case in the Saskatoon area as well.  

The overall number of cases reported in the province has risen to 620, with 120 of them considered active.

There are 102 active cases in the far north region, 11 in the north region, five in the Saskatoon area, one in the central region and one in Regina area.

There have been 242 cases in the far north region overall, along with 110 cases in the north region, 165 in the Saskatoon area, 76 in the Regina area, 15 in the southern region and 12 in the central region.

The province has traced 139 cases to travel, linked another 339 to community contacts or mass gatherings and is investigating 71 others. There are 71 cases with no known exposure.

Four people are in hospital. Three of them are in intensive care.