'What's next?' Riders' Armstead focused on showdown with Ottawa
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"I have a 'What's next?' mentality," said Ryquell Armstead, who faces his former team on Saturday.
There is one new case of COVID-19 in Saskatchewan.
The case is in the Saskatoon region.
Of the 684 reported COVID-19 cases in Saskatchewan, 40 are considered active. A total of 631 people have recovered.
Two people are receiving inpatient care. One in the North and one in Saskatoon. One person is in intensive care in Saskatoon.
While Saskatoon has seen a rise in active cases over recent days, chief medical health officer Dr. Saqib Shahab took the opportunity to say they’ve got a solid handle on each of those cases, and aren’t worried about further spread.
“We did see a bit of an increase in Saskatoon… and so far, all of the cases are accounted for. They aren’t pop-up cases happening all over the city. There were three cases linked to international travel and further transmission within that household. That counts for about seven total cases,” he explained in a press conference on Tuesday.
Phase 4
In a release, the government has announced that Phase 4 of Re-Open Saskatchewan Plan will take place June 22.
On that day, activities scheduled for the first part of the plan can get underway in the province.
Those include:
- Child and youth day camps;
- Outdoor pools and splash pads; and
- Outdoor sports and activities.
Residents are advised to check with the local operator of these activities regarding availability. Some municipalities have indicated that activities, such as outdoor pools, may remain closed.
A date for the second portion of Phase 4 will be announced at a later time and will include indoor pools, rinks, libraries, museums, galleries, movie theatres, casinos and bingo halls.
Effective June 22, indoor gatherings of up to 30 are only permitted where space allows for two metres of physical distancing between participants.
Premier Scott Moe and Shahab broke down their reasoning on choosing the date for Phase 4’s start.
“In general, things are quiet in Saskatchewan … next week, a lot of the activities are outdoor activities (opening up). We feel outdoor activities, if guidelines are followed, are fairly safe and obviously there’s a big desire to engage in some of those,” Shahab said.
Moe said it’s another positive economic step.
“It’s always our goal to open up as much of the economy as we can,” he said.
Guidelines on pools, sports and day camps
As with every step of the Re-Open Saskatchewan Plan so far, there will be some guidelines and restrictions on the activities allowed to open.
“The guidelines will have some basic precautions around how many people you can have within an outdoor pool. The operators will have to decide on a limit. (There will be) special attention around washrooms, more cleaning of multi-touch surfaces,” Shahab explained. “Outdoor activities, day camps should be fairly safe (as long as they’re) observing some of those basic principles. That’s also good training for when school starts, and we’ll see: we hope that transmission remains low because they’re outdoor events.”
“Well, I won’t be synchronized swimming,” Moe joked.
More numbers
Of the 684 cases in the province:
- 146 cases are travellers;
- 409 are community contacts (including mass gatherings);
- 81 have no known exposures; and
- 48 are under investigation by local public health.
Overall in Saskatchewan, 52 cases are health care workers; however, the source of the infections may not be related to health care in all instances.
The Far North has 277 cases, 182 are from the Saskatoon area, 112 from the North, 80 from the Regina area, 19 from the South and 12 from the Central region.
There are 104 cases involving people 19 years of age and under, while the remainder are adults.
There are 241 cases in the 20-39 age range; 207 are in the 40-59 age range; 114 are in the 60-79 age range; and 18 are in the 80-plus range.
Fifty-one per cent of the cases are females and 49 per cent are males.
Thirteen deaths related to COVID-19 have been reported to date.
To date, 56,715 COVID19 tests have been performed in Saskatchewan. As of June 14, 2020, when other provincial and national numbers were available from the Public Health Agency of Canada, Saskatchewan’s per capita rate was 42,855 people tested per million population. The national rate was 58, 088 people tested per million population.
In its release, the province says testing for COVID-19 is available to anyone currently working outside the home or anyone returning to work as part of the reopening plan.