Active cases inched up, hospitalized patients crept downwards, the number of positive cases associated with the Brandt Industries workplace in Saskatoon edged upwards and the number of active cases in Hutterite colonies tumbled a touch. That is Tuesday’s COVID-19 update from the Ministry of Health in a nutshell.

Ten new cases of the novel coronavirus were reported Tuesday…two of them from the Brandt Industries workplace in Saskatoon for a total of 19 since the outbreak was first reported late last week. The latest confirmed cases are from testing completed on close contacts of the employees and are not occurring in the workplace itself.

Tuesday’s update had nine people recover from COVID-19, meaning that the active case count in Saskatchewan is at 146, compared to 145 from Monday. In addition, the number of active cases in hospital is down to nine from 10 and the number of infections from Hutterite colonies is down to 24 from 27 on Monday.

Four other new cases of the virus are from the Saskatoon area, two from Regina and one each from the Far North East and Central West zones. The provincial total is now at 1,824 reported cases with 1,654 recoveries. Of the nine people in hospital, one is in a Saskatoon I-C-U with the other eight cases receiving inpatient treatment…one in Regina and seven in Saskatoon.

Of the 1,824 cases in the province to date:

• 271 cases are travellers;
• 894 are community contacts (including mass gatherings);
• 528 have no known exposures; and
• 131 are under investigation by local public health.

Overall in Saskatchewan to date:

• 69 cases are healthcare workers; however, the source of the infections may not be related to healthcare in all instances.
• 306 cases involve people 19 years of age and under, while the remainder are adults.
• 595 cases are in the 20-39 age range; 562 are in the 40-59 age range; 300 are in the 60-79 age range; and 61 are in the 80-plus range.
• 51 per cent of the cases are females and 49 per cent are males.
• 24 deaths related to COVID-19 have been reported to date.
• There are:
  • 439 cases are from the south area (222 south west, 199 south central, 18 south east)
  • 359 cases are from the Saskatoon area
  • 358 cases are from the far north area (349 far north west, 0 far north central, 9 far north east)
  • 271 cases are from the north area (131 north west, 73 north central, 67 north east)
  • 235 cases are from the central area (173 central west, 62 central east)
  • 162 cases are from the Regina area

To date, 175,405 COVID-19 tests have been performed in Saskatchewan. As of September 20, 2020 when other provincial and national numbers are available from Public Health Agency of Canada, Saskatchewan’s per capita rate was 123,972 people tested per million population. The national rate was 178,204 people tested per million population.

On Monday, 1,641 COVID-19 tests were performed in Saskatchewan.

Supporting COVID-19 Testing

The Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) has been increasing testing capacity including enhancing staffing resources to better enable provincial laboratory teams to sustainably meet the goal of 4,000 COVID-19 tests per day.

Staffing:

• SHA labs are hiring 76 positions. To date, 27 people have been hired. Recruitment and training for the remaining positions is on-going.

Asymptomatic Pooled Testing:

• Starting this week, SHA labs will implement pooled testing of asymptomatic swabs, allowing laboratories to test more specimens with fewer testing materials, increasing testing output.
• Pooled testing means combining a number of specimens and conducting one laboratory test to detect COVID-19. If any pooled test produces a positive result, all samples within the batch will be retested individually before results are released.

Increasing GeneXpert Testing:

• The SHA will increase the number of GeneXpert tests being performed provincially from 200 per week to 1,200 per week in early October due to increased supplies from the vendor.
• The GeneXpert is a molecular testing platform located in more than 20 locations throughout the province, providing more immediate diagnostics on-site. It significantly expands testing capacity while improving turn-around times.