Ashley Messier builds hockey legacy with sights on PWHL, Olympics
10h ago
Mark Messier is her distant cousin, but this Sask. hockey product is carving her own path.
On Wednesday, the province announced in its daily COVID-19 update that three people who had previously been counted as deaths related to the virus were being removed from the count.
The news release said the deaths were determined now to not have been related to COVID.
The Ministry of Health is now offering a little more explanation as to what happened.
According to a statement from the ministry, the province considers a death to be related to COVID-19 when it’s the “result of a clinically compatible illness” — a similar illness — in a COVID-19 case, unless there’s a clear alternative cause of death that’s not related to COVID like some sort of trauma.
And when a death happens after a COVID diagnosis, the doctor is required to report it and then it appears in the province’s daily update.
“Given the urgent timelines required to keep Saskatchewan residents informed on the status of COVID-19, deaths of individuals who tested COVID positive are reported as soon as possible,” read the statement.
The ministry said there are standards and processes followed to register deaths and their causes, and in the cases of the three that were removed, it was determined they were from causes other than COVID.
These three cases are the first time deaths have been removed from the COVID death count.