The province was jolted by news of the largest one-day increase in cases of COVID-19 in Saskatchewan since the pandemic began.
There were 42 new cases reported of COVID-19 on July 16, bringing the total to 923 cases. The majority of the new cases are in the southwest region.
Thirty-one of the new cases are in the South, six in the Central, four in the Saskatoon region and one is in the North. There are eleven people in hospital, also a new daily high. Nine are receiving inpatient care and two are in intensive care.
Those in the affected areas are also being asked to take the following steps: to stay at home as much as possible, to self-isolate and get tested if they feel unwell at all or if they have been in contact with anyone known to have tested positive, and to limit interpersonal contacts and group gathering as much as possible. This is in addition to the other practises including physical distancing, hand washing and wearing a mask when it was impossible to maintain physical distancing.
There was good news to report: there are now zero active cases reported in the Northwest of the province, where the major outbreak in the La Loche area occurred.
At a news conference in Regina, minister of rural and remote health Warren Kaeding said the “outbreak is a reminder that the virus has not gone away.”
"Once it starts to spread, it can spread quickly. While our overall case numbers have been low in Saskatchewan, that means most of us remain vulnerable to exposure to COVID-19. So we all have to keep being careful."
The spike in numbers comes as a result of aggressive contact tracing and testing done in the central and southern areas.
The previous evening, the Saskatchewan Health Authority send out a news release stating they expected results from 91 COVID-19 tests from residents in the southwestern and south central Saskatchewan area on Thursday, and had noted more than 160 people were undergoing testing in south west and south central Saskatchewan.
Moreover, visitation restrictions have been put in place at Cypress Regional Hospital, as well as long-term care homes and personal care homes within close proximity to the affected area, will be temporarily restricted to outdoor visits and end of life care.
Kaeding acknowledged they were likely to find “many more” cases in the days ahead.
Kaeding said they were not issuing any new public health orders or any closures specific to that area. He said they believed by following the recommendations they can get the outbreak under control.
“I know this is asking a lot. We had all hoped that we were through the most difficult phase of COVID-19 and with everything reopening no one wants to take a step backward. But there is now an increased risk in central and southwest Saskatchewan. So we are asking everyone there to take these steps for the next couple of weeks to get it back under control.”
There was one piece of good news to report: SHA chief executive officer Scott Livingstone reported there were no longer any active cases connected to the outbreak in the northwest part of the province including the La Loche area.
“The northwest situation tells us that we can fight this virus successfully if we work together with communities, health practitioners and the citizens of this province.”
Officials were asked if they would consider stricter enforcement in the area like they saw in the far North. Kaeding said that was something they were having "ongoing conversations." He also noted the tougher restrictions in the Northwest was something that leaders there had asked for.
Regarding the southwest situation, Kaeding said they would monitor how this was unfolding, and were hoping that with some of the limitations in place there that they could go with the current limitations. "We won't preclude that we would take more if we deemed them to be necessary," said Kaeding.
