Four more cases and two COVID-19 deaths reported Monday

The Saskatchewan Legislature -- Jayda Noyes/Daily Herald

After just four new cases of COVID-19 were reported over the last five days, Saskatchewan announced four new confirmed positive tests, as well as two deaths, Monday.
“First of all I will begin by expressing our condolences to the friends and family and community of the individuals who passed away as a result of COVID-19. Both were residents of the far north and both were seniors in their 60s and 70s. So again this is a reminder that elders remain the most vulnerable and whenever we have large cluster outbreaks even though 80 percent of the cases, 20 percent can require a high level of hospitalization and unfortunately in a few cases we can have a death as an outcome,” Chief Medical Health Officer Dr. Saqib Shahab said.
Premier Scott Moe also expressed his condolences to open the news conference Monday.
One individual was in their 60s and the second was in their 70s. This brings the total number of deaths in the province to 13.
Three of the new cases were from the far north region and one is in the Saskatoon.
One more recoveries was reported and the total is now 624.
The total number of cases has jumped to 654. The active case number has increased by one to 17.
Phase 3 of Re-Open Saskatchewan began Monday. Effective yesterday, restaurants and licensed establishments are able to open at 50 per cent capacity.

Personal care services not opened in Phase 2 were permitted to open, and gyms and other fitness facilities are able to open.
“Today is a big day for reopening in the province of Saskatchewan. We are down to just 17 active cases in Saskatchewan and we are moving ahead with phase three of the Re-Open Saskatchewan plan. This means that today restaurants are open for business, gyms are open for business, childcare facilities will be able to expand their numbers and remaining personal services will now be open,” Premier Scott Moe said during the provinces press conference on Monday.
“As of today virtually every type of business across the province can be open if they choose to do so. Really the only remaining exceptions are casinos, bingo halls and theatres which will be part of phase four,” he added
Art galleries, museums and other indoor recreational spaces have also been barred from opening and will be a part of phase 4
Guidelines are now posted to assist the re-opening of places of worship and child care facilities as part of Phase 3. Places of worship can reopen for indoor services for up to 30 people as part of this phase.
“We continue to work with the leaders from all faith communities to find ways to safely increase the attendance of religious services and celebrations such as weddings and memorial services. This is a priority for us and I would like to thank each of the leaders of all faiths that have been offering not only their advice but have been offering their experience to public health throughout this journey, it is appreciated and I say thank you,” Moe said.
Limits on public and private gatherings have now been increased to a maximum of 15 indoors and 30 outdoors. The government has also announced that outdoor playgrounds and beaches and associated washrooms can re-open on Friday, June 12.
Guidelines for these facilities will include measures such as maintaining physical distancing, frequent handwashing and enhanced cleaning and disinfection of rental equipment and washrooms.
Effective Monday travel restrictions in Northwest Saskatchewan have been lifted, and the Northern Village of La Loche has moved into phases 1 and 2 of the Re-Open Saskatchewan plan.
“In the far north we are down to just six active cases. The remaining restrictions on travel in the northwestern part of our province are being lifted effective today. We also now have reopening dates for most of the 12 emergency rooms that were temporarily closed. Eight of the 12 ER s will reopen in June,” Moe said.
The Government of Saskatchewan and the Chief Medical Health Officer continue to carefully monitor the transmission of COVID-19 to inform decisions regarding the pace at which restrictions can be lifted or put back in place if required.
As well playgrounds and beaches are now scheduled to open on June 12.
“Hopefully it’s a great weekend so that families can enjoy some time at the beach or some time at the playground,” Moe said.
Moe explained that the province has done great work flattening the curve and thanked the people of the province.
“This virus has not disappeared. COVID cases continue to increase in many parts of the world including some other parts of our nation and many areas of the United States. So we need to remain vigilant. In Saskatchewan we have proven that we can control the spread of the virus, we can reopen and we can control the spread in the future. Today virtually all businesses in Saskatchewan can reopen and they can operate. They are doing so as safely as possible, they are doing this so that many of us can get back to work, so that more of us can worship in accordance with our faith and so that more of us can access the medical health services that we require and so that more of us, as families, can enjoy our communities and a great Saskatchewan summer.”
With new cases reported Monday, 260 of the cases are from the far north, 173 are from the Saskatoon area, 112 are from the north, 80 are from the Regina area, 17 are from the south and 12 are from the central region.
There is still a single person in intensive care in Saskatoon.
There are currently 51 cases who are health care workers. However, the source of the infections may not be related to health care in all instances.
Of the 654 cases in the province: 144 cases are related to travel, 393 are community contacts, which includes mass gatherings, 79 have no known exposures and 38 are under investigation by local public health, which is a drop of two from Friday.
The age breakdown shows 98 cases involve people 19 years of age and under, 232 cases are in the 20-39 age range, 199 are in the 40-59 age range, 107 are in the 60-79 age range and 18 are in the 80-plus range.
The gender breakdown shows 52 per cent of the cases being females and 48 per cent being males.
As of June 8, 52,229 COVID-19 tests have been performed in the province, an increase of 536 from Thursday.
As of June 6, when other provincial and national numbers were last available from the Public Health Agency of Canada, Saskatchewan’s per capita rate was 39,640 people tested per million population. The national rate was 50,462 people tested per million population.
Emergency rooms reopening

The Saskatchewan Health Authority will soon be re-opening eight of the 12 regional emergency rooms temporarily closed as part of the health system readiness plan as hospitals have been converted to alternate level of care sites across the province.
“We are working very diligently to ensure the ERs are open as quickly as possible. Those four additional ER s have ongoing staffing issues that are unrelated to COVID and so the Saskatchewan Health Authority is working to make sure those are resolved and those ERs are open as quickly as possible,” Moe said.
This helped build capacity for any potential surge in COVID-19 cases and to protect against outbreaks in the medical facilities.
Target timelines in each of the eight communities set to re-open ERs in June include Kerrobert on June 12, Leader and Arcola on June 16, Preeceville on June 18, Biggar and Oxbow on June 22, Davidson on June 24 and Herbert on June 25.
These dates may be subject to the status of active COVID-19 positive cases and ability to meet all required safety criteria and human resourcing requirements for re-opening.
The SHA continues to work on ER resumption planning for the four community hospitals in Broadview, Radville, Lanigan and Wolseley.

Domestic Flights

Posted Travel information related to COVID-19, including all flights returning to Saskatchewan with a confirmed case of COVID-19 are available on the Public Health Agency of Canada website. Two domestic flights have been added: AC 1129 Toronto-Saskatoon on May 29 and WS 3370 Calgary-Saskatoon on May 30. Anyone who was on those flights has been asked to monitor for symptoms.GeneralSmart ListReviews Post template: ?

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There is still a single person in intensive care in Saskatoon.

The number of deaths reported remains steady at 11.

There are currently 51 cases who are health care workers. However, the source of the infections may not be related to health care in all instances.

Of the 654 cases in the province: 144 cases are related to travel, 393 are community contacts, which includes mass gatherings, 79 have no known exposures and 38 are under investigation by local public health, which is a drop of two from Friday.

The age breakdown shows 98 cases involve people 19 years of age and under, 232 cases are in the 20-39 age range, 199 are in the 40-59 age range, 107 are in the 60-79 age range and 18 are in the 80-plus range.

The gender breakdown shows 52 per cent of the cases being females and 48 per cent being males.

As of June 8, 52,229 COVID-19 tests have been performed in the province, an increase of 536 from Thursday.

As of June 6, when other provincial and national numbers were last available from the Public Health Agency of Canada, Saskatchewan’s per capita rate was 39,640 people tested per million population. The national rate was 50,462 people tested per million population.

*This story has been corrected to better reflect where new cases were identified Monday.

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