Saskatchewan will remain under a state of emergency for another two weeks. Premier Scott Moe announced the extension Wednesday afternoon during the daily update on COVID-19. A state of emergency means being able to regulate things like restricting travel and limiting what businesses can remain open.
Saskatchewan’s Premier reiterated that there would be an announcement next week about the types of businesses and services that would be first to re-open. Scott Moe explains that the number of new cases of COVID-19 remain low and the number of recoveries are rising thanks to everyone practicing the prevention guidelines.
He wouldn’t say what types of businesses would be first to re-open, but emphasized what wouldn’t be considered. That includes anything related to ongoing travel restrictions, expanding the number of people that can gather, and opening up long term care facilities. Moe says these are three areas where restrictions will remain because they are high risk for transmission of the virus. Once the types of businesses are announced, Moe says they will need some time to prepare so they can set things up to practice the guidelines, including physical distancing.
Moe understands that some people feel it’s too soon, but he says some people also feel it should have already begun.
A Look At The Numbers
The apparent flattening of the COVID-19 curve in Saskatchewan continued Wednesday. While the number of new, confirmed cases reported went up from one on Tuesday to three Wednesday, there were 18 more people having recovered from the novel coronavirus. The provincial total of confirmed cases is at 304, but of those, 205 people have recovered from COVID-19. That leaves 95 active cases with eight of them in hospital, which is up one from Tuesday. All are receiving inpatient care plus the death toll from the virus in Saskatchewan remains at four people.
The cause of the 304 provincial cases of the novel coronavirus splits into 131 travelers, 122 cases come from community contacts or mass gatherings, 30 have no known exposure and 21 cases are under investigation by local public health. Included in the number of cases are 34 health care workers, although the source of their infections may not be due to being on the job.
The demographic breakdown of the 304 cases in Saskatchewan shows 130 to be in the 20-44 age range, 101 in the 45-64 group, 51 in the 65-plus range and 22 cases in the 19-and-under age group.
By region (pictured), the split of the 304 provincial cases has 147 being located in Saskatoon and area, 67 from the Regina area, 58 cases from the north, 15 from the south, 10 cases from the central region and seven from the far north. The gender breakdown remains at 53 per cent of the cases being males and 47 per cent female.
Saskatchewan continues to boast of having the second-highest rate of testing per capita among the provinces with 20,907 COVID-19 tests having been performed.
