The provincial government has issued guidelines for how to spend and/or hold safe Halloween, Thanksgiving Day and Remembrance Day activities. The most up-to-date version of the Re-Open Saskatchewan Plan, including guidance for fall activities, can be found at www.saskatchewan.ca/re-open.

The basics still apply which include maintaining physical distancing and restrictions on gathering. Suggestions for Halloween include groups of trick or treaters taking turns to approach houses. Parents are urged, considering how many hands will potentially touch candy wrappers, to either clean them or, set them aside for 72 hours before consuming.

Only wrapped, store bought treats should be distributed and it is suggested you hand them out using tongs. Common touch areas like doorbells and door handles should be frequently washed and both the giver and the receiver should be practising frequent hand hygiene with hand sanitizer. For Thanksgiving shared meals between people who are not of the same household are discouraged. Gathering sizes have to remain small enough that physical distancing can be maintained.

Otherwise, Friday was another day for the number of active cases of COVID-19 to go down from the day previous in the province. However, there were 11 new cases of the novel coronavirus in today’s (Friday’s) update. There are three in each of Saskatoon and area and the North Central region as well as single cases in each of the North West, Central East, Regina and South East zones. One location is pending. There were 18 individuals reported as having recovered from COVID-19 in Saskatchewan, leaving 123 active cases and eight of those receiving inpatient care in hospital. Seven people are in Saskatoon hospital and the eighth in the South Central zone.

In total, since the pandemic was declared in the province in mid-March, there have been 1,846 reported cases with 1,699 recoveries and 24 deaths.

Of the 1,846 cases in the province to date:

• 278 cases are travellers;
• 919 are community contacts (including mass gatherings);
• 533 have no known exposures; and
• 116 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.
• 309 cases involve people 19 years of age and under, while the remainder are adults.
• 601 cases are in the 20-39 age range; 572 are in the 40-59 age range; 302 are in the 60-79 age range; and 62 are in the 80-plus range.
• 50 per cent of the cases are females and 50 per cent are males.
• 24 deaths related to COVID-19 have been reported to date.
• There are:
  • 441 cases are from the south area (222 south west, 200 south central, 19 south east)
  • 366 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)
  • 275 cases are from the north area (132 north west, 76 north central, 67 north east)
  • 238 cases are from the central area (175 central west, 63 central east)
  • 167 cases are from the Regina area
  • One case is pending location

To date, 180,232 COVID-19 tests have been performed in Saskatchewan. As of September 22, 2020 when other provincial and national numbers are available from Public Health Agency of Canada, Saskatchewan’s per capita rate was 127,085 people tested per million population. The national rate was 183,596 people tested per million population.

On Thursday, 1,742 COVID-19 tests were performed in Saskatchewan.