The word “outbreak” wasn’t used in Monday’s provincial COVID-19 update, but the Ministry of Health reported 56 new, confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus in Saskatchewan since the last update was issued on Friday. It more than doubled the number of active cases in the province. There were 43 on Friday, and as of Monday, there were 90. 31 are from the central region, 15 in the south, 6 in the Saskatoon area, and 4 in the Regina area.

Saskatchewan’s Chief Medical health Officer, Dr. Saqib Shahab, says most of the transmission in the southwest and west-central areas is linked to Hutterite colonies, but 8 in that area over the last 3 or 4 days are not related to that outbreak. He notes that the large number we are seeing in the Hutterite colonies is due to the increased testing and contact tracing from the original outbreak.

The cases were reported in these R.M.s:

Maple Creek (No. 111)
Auvergne (No. 76)
Biggar (No. 347)
Carmichael (No. 109)
Eagle Creek (No. 376)
Harris (No. 316)
Lac Pelletier (No. 107)
Newcombe (No. 260)
Perdue (No. 346)
Kellross (No. 247)
Prairiedale (No. 321)

Dr. Shahab says no other cases other than the original one linked to the Canadian Brewhouse in Saskatoon’s Stonebridge neighbourhood have been found, but there is now a second case from the Sunnyside Barr in Emma Lake. There have now been 871 confirmed cases of the virus in this province, and 766 recoveries.

There are 3 people in the hospital…one receiving inpatient care in Saskatoon, an I-C-U patient in Saskatoon and another case in I-C-U in the South region.

Of the 871 cases in the province:

• 174 cases are travellers;
• 487 are community contacts (including mass gatherings);
• 128 have no known exposures; and
• 82 are under investigation by local public health.

Overall in Saskatchewan:

• 57 cases are health care workers; however, the source of the infections may not be related to health care in all instances.
• 339 of the cases are from the Far North, 198 are from the Saskatoon area, 120 from the North, 84 from the Regina area, 83 from the South and 47 from the Central region.
• 121 cases involve people 19 years of age and under, while the remainder are adults.
• 309 cases are in the 20-39 age range; 269 are in the 40-59 age range; 149 are in the 60-79 age range; and 23 are in the 80-plus range.
• 52 per cent of the cases are females and 48 per cent are males.
• 15 deaths related to COVID-19 have been reported to date.

To date, 75,161 COVID19 tests have been performed in Saskatchewan. As of July 11, 2020, when other provincial and national numbers were available from the Public Health Agency of Canada, Saskatchewan’s per capita rate was 55,404 people tested per million population. The national rate was 85,473 people tested per million population.