Saskatchewan reports 18 more recoveries, three new COVID-19 cases

Even though the number of active COVID-19 cases in Saskatchewan has dropped below 100 for the first time in three weeks, Premier Scott Moe on Wednesday extended the state of emergency in the province.

“This reinforces that even as we review options for a potential phased-in approach to reopen Saskatchewan, we are still in a state of emergency and we must not be complacent,” Moe said during a conference call with reporters.

“We must remain vigilant because, quite frankly, lives in our community and lives in our province depend on it.”

The provincial government announced Wednesday there were three new confirmed cases, increasing that total to 304. But there were 18 more recoveries, hiking that number to 205.

The number of recoveries added to the number of deaths to date (four) means there currently are 95 active cases.

It’s the first time since March 26 that Saskatchewan has been below 100 active cases. On that day, there were 95 confirmed cases without any recoveries or deaths.

“This shows what we are doing is working,” Moe said, “and while there is absolutely no reason for complacency, it is reason for us to have some very cautious optimism as we begin to consider gradually and methodically allowing more Saskatchewan businesses to reopen.”

Moe has mentioned in recent days that the province would like to get the economy restarted as quickly as possible. That said, both he and Dr. Saqib Shahab — the province’s chief medical health officer — noted during the conference call that any businesses that get the green light to reopen must abide by the requirements currently in place.

Things such as hand-washing, physical distancing and self-monitoring will be mandatory for all businesses that open.

“There should be a clear plan of screening yourself if you’re a single-person business or a plan for all employees to be screened, either by self-screening or by the employer,” Shahab said. “You don’t want anyone showing up to work if they are sick because we really want to minimize, even in those workplaces, that horizontal transmission from one person to another.

“Even there, we want to maintain physical distancing and all the things we practise every day at home or while shopping.”

Moe said the government will produce a list, likely next week, of businesses that may be allowed to reopen or events that may be permitted to be held as the province tries to jumpstart the economy.

“COVID is here for a while, for a number of months for sure before we are able to have access to a vaccine. What we are looking to do is to open up some segments of our economy, keep the residents of this province safe, but open up some segments of the economy so we can have a functioning economy here in the province of Saskatchewan and have a point of where we can actually start to recover economically from,” explained Moe.

However, the premier pointed out that some restrictions currently in place will not be lifted anytime soon. Those include limits on the size of gatherings, bans on visitors to hospitals and long-term care facilities, and requirements on all travellers returning from another country to self-quarantine for 14 days.

“Travel, large gatherings and our seniors care homes, we know those are three very high-risk areas and we will not be removing those restrictions in the foreseeable future,” Moe said.

Saskatchewan’s finances

At the beginning of the pandemic, the provincial government decided to only table spending for the coming year, saying the rest of the spring budget was too unsure to be predicted at that time.

On Wednesday, Moe said the province is going to try to be as transparent as possible on the finances.

“(Spending estimates) have obviously changed a little bit as we are investing further into our economy. We are attempting to assemble some of our best estimates with respect to some of the revenue side of the provincial finances and when we are able to we will most certainly bring those forward and release those to the public,” said Moe.

Moe said an update will come in days and not weeks. He did take the opportunity to point out that Moody’s credit rating agency has kept Saskatchewan’s rating at triple-A.

“We continue to work through a very challenging situation not only from a health delivery perspective as this pandemic sweeps around the world and Saskatchewan, but we remain in a very solid position from an economic perspective and poised to deal with the challenges that we have.”

A look at the numbers

There are eight people in hospital in the province, with four people receiving inpatient care in Saskatoon, three in Regina and one in the north. There aren’t any cases in intensive care.

Of the 304 cases, 131 are travellers, 122 are community contacts or linked to a mass gathering and 30 don’t have any known exposures. Public health officials are investigating 21 other cases.

Thirty-four of the total number of cases are health-care workers, but the province cautioned they may not have contracted the virus in a work setting.

Province-wide, 147 of the cases are from the Saskatoon area, 67 are from the Regina area, 58 reside in the northern region of the province, 15 live in the south, 10 are from the central area and seven are from the far north.

In terms of active cases, 50 are in Saskatoon, 22 are in Regina, 13 are in the north, five are in the far north, three are in the south and two are in the central area.

Of the recoveries, 96 are from Saskatoon, 44 are from Regina, 44 are from the north, 12 are from the south, seven are from the central region and two are from the far north.

Twenty-two of the total number of cases involve people aged 19 or under. The rest are adults, comprising 130 cases in the 20-to-44 age range, 101 in the 45-to-64 age range and 51 who are 65 and over.

Of the 20,907 COVID-19 tests performed to date, 625 were conducted Tuesday.