COVID-19 in Sask: 6 new cases, 6 recoveries reported Thursday

Saskatchewan reported six more cases of COVID-19 on Thursday.

Five different zones each reported one new case, including the far northeast, Saskatoon, central west, central east and Regina zones. The location of the sixth case is pending.

The total number of reported cases in the province now stands at 1,676, with 59 considered active. A total of 1,593 people have recovered.

One person is in hospital receiving inpatient care in Saskatoon.

The province said 1,120 COVID-19 tests were performed Wednesday.

It also announced that, beginning Sept. 17, the province will be providing a weekly report about trends of COVID-19 in school.

The report will give testing numbers and cases for children aged 0 to 19 with data by age categories and testing positivity rates posted weekly.

Dr. Saqib Shahab, the province's chief medical health officer, said that with schools opening the province is going to take a closer look at that age group.

It will break the age groups into pre-school, elementary and high school to try to understand how transmission is occurring, Shahab said.

"We need to understand that if you see an increase in case numbers, what are the exposure settings?"

Scott Livingstone, the CEO of the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA), said the authority will be tracking students, teachers and other school employees.

"The hope is next weekend on an ongoing basis, we'll be able to improve reporting as we know more about what's going on with testing results and testing numbers in school age kids, as well as school employees," Livingstone said.

The report will be posted at saskatchewan.ca/COVID-19/Safe-Schools-Plan.

Shahab said the province is at a critical time as schools reopen and fall begins.

"We've had a nice summer, we've had low transmission rates, we've been able to enjoy the summer," he said. "But we are entering our first fall and winter during a pandemic and hopefully we will be in a different place by spring and summer."

Shahab said now is the time to remain vigilant and wear mask, wash hands and social distance.

"We have very low transmission rates [right now], but we can see from jurisdictions around us, and internationally, that it doesn't take much for transmission to pick up again significantly," he said.

"So we really need to continue to do what we've been doing to keep our case numbers low, to support school reopening and people going back to work and all of the other sectors of the economy that have been working throughout over the last few months."