There are 48 new cases of COVID-19 to report in Saskatchewan on Oct. 12, bringing the total to 2,140 cases.
One new case is in the southeast. Of the 32 cases diagnosed in the southeast in the past seven months, 11 are considered active.
The new case is from Southeast Zone 4, which includes Estevan. Ten cases are currently active in Zone 4. One person in this zone has recovered from COVID-19 in the past 24 hours.
Nineteen cases are in the north central region and 13 are in the Saskatoon region. There are five in the Regina region, three in the northwest, three in the central east, and single cases in the far northwest, northeast, central west and southwest regions.
Public health investigations are underway to understand the source of exposure for today’s new cases. On Sunday it was reported that at least 12 northern cases had links to the gospel outreach outbreak in Prince Albert and it is anticipated that several of the positive cases reported for Monday will also have a connection. There is also an increase in cases throughout Saskatchewan with cases linked to public and private social gatherings in the home and other venues.
Chief medical health officer Dr. Saqib Shahab continues to call for vigilance and extreme caution for any social gathering in the home that includes anyone outside the extended household. He is also strongly recommending masks be worn in all indoor public locations where physical distancing of two metres is not possible or predictable.
Above all, stay home if sick.
Of the 2,140 reported cases, 215, or about 10 per cent, are considered active.
Twelve more people have recovered, bringing the provincial total to 1,900 recoveries, or 88.8 per cent of those diagnosed.
Eight people are in hospital. Seven people are receiving inpatient care, with five in Saskatoon and two in Regina. One person is in intensive care in Regina.
There have been 465 cases from the south area (226 southwest, 207 south central, 32 southeast).
As for the rest of the province, 442 cases are from the Saskatoon area, 375 cases are from the far north area (356 far northwest, zero far north central, 19 far northeast); 329 cases are from the north area (140 northwest, 118 north central, 71 northeast), 310 cases are from the central area (183 central west, 127 central east) and 219 cases are from the Regina area.
Of the 2,140 cases in the province to date, 314 cases are travellers, 1,061 are community contacts (including mass gatherings), 603 have no known exposures and 162 are under investigation by local public health.
Seventy-eight cases are healthcare workers; however, the source of the infections may not be related to healthcare in all instances.
A total of 366 cases involve people 19 years of age and under, 717 cases are in the 20-39 age range, 645 are in the 40-59 age range, 342 are in the 60-79 age range and 70 are in the 80-plus range.
Fifty-one per cent of the cases are females and 49 per cent are males.
Twenty-five deaths related to COVID-19 have been reported.
To date, 217,606 COVID-19 tests have been performed in Saskatchewan. As of Oct. 8, when other provincial and national numbers are available from Public Health Agency of Canada, Saskatchewan’s per capita rate was 147,073 people tested per million population. The national rate was 214,103 people tested per million population.
There were 3,237 COVID-19 tests performed in Saskatchewan on Sunday – the highest daily number of tests reported to date. It’s the second straight day a new record was set.
