Latest COVID update Oct. 23

The number of new COVID-19 cases being reported in Saskatchewan isn’t the only figure on which health officials are keeping a close eye.

Hospitalizations are on the rise over the past week in Saskatchewan, with 20 people in hospital. Four — three in Saskatoon and one in Regina — are in intensive care.

There are 16 people receiving inpatient care. Nine are in the Saskatoon area, five are in the north-central zone, one is in the Regina region and one is in the northwest.

There was one person in hospital as recently as Oct. 5.

Saskatchewan Health Authority CEO Scott Livingstone said the authority’s pandemic plan from April remains unchanged.

“As we see the cases creep up, we are concerned about the number of hospitalizations as they grow. Over the summer (with) the cases we saw, many were not hospitalized. We were really fighting the battle in the community,” Livingstone said during the provincial update Friday.

Livingstone said that as of now, the SHA is in a full-fledged service resumption to provide service for both COVID and non-COVID patients.

“As we see those trends go up, we will put other initiatives in place to support patients as we need to,” Livingstone said.

Saskatchewan reported 33 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday, with nine of them in the Regina region.

The north-central zone had five new cases, with four cases reported in each of the Saskatoon, northeast and southeast areas, three in each of the northwest and central-east zones and one in the far northwest.

Saskatchewan’s chief medical health officer, Dr. Saqib Shahab, said the province has gone up from 2.8 cases per 100,000 per day over a week to 4.2 per 100,000.

“We still can, in a vast majority of cases, identify links to a known transmission event whether that’s a bar or gym or gathering that happened,” Shahab said.

The new cases reported Friday increased the provincial total to date to 2,591.

According to the Ministry of Health, 37 of Saskatoon’s confirmed cases so far have been linked to a single nightclub.

There were 31 recoveries reported in the province, increasing that total so far to 2,055. That’s the highest number of recoveries in a single day since 57 were reported on Aug. 7.

To date, 25 residents of the province have died after testing positive for COVID-19.

There are 511 active cases being reported in Saskatchewan.

To date, there have been 563 cases from the Saskatoon area, 480 in the south zone (228 southwest, 211 south-central, 41 southeast), 476 from the north (162 northwest, 212 north-central, 102 northeast), 425 in the far north (375 far northwest, 50 far northeast), 352 from the central zone (196 central-west, 156 central-east) and 293 in the Regina region.

The hometowns of two cases are pending.

There have been 912 cases in the 20-to-39 age range, 751 between the ages of 40 and 59, 482 involving people 19 and under, 369 from ages 60 to 79, and 77 among those 80 and over.

The total number of cases includes 1,299 community contacts, 690 cases without a known exposure, 338 travellers and 264 cases that remain under investigation.

To date, 82 health-care workers have contracted the virus.

There were 2,297 tests done in the province on Thursday, increasing the total so far to 242,500.

Cases at RCMP’s F Division

The RCMP has confirmed there are two cases of COVID-19 at F Division, the Mounties’ headquarters in Regina.

Both individuals are now in isolation at home and the building on Dewdney Avenue has undergone a deep clean. The front desk is still open to the public.

About 200 people usually work at F Division, but more than half have been at home since the pandemic began.