(Lisa Schick/980 CJME)

By paNOW Staff

Latest from the province

40 new cases of COVID-19, 12 more recoveries in Sask.

Oct 16, 2020 | 2:18 PM

There are 40 news cases of COVID-19 in Saskatchewan and data has revealed 79 people in various communities have tested positive for the virus connected to the Gospel Worship event in Prince Albert.

The new cases are located in the Far North West (six), Far North East (seven), North West (one), North Central (eight), Saskatoon (seven), Central West (one), Central East (two), Regina (seven) and South Central (one) zones.

Of the 2,270 reported cases, 299 are considered active. A total of 1,946 people have recovered.

Two cases that had been assigned to Central East (1) and Regina (1) were deemed to be out of province cases and were removed, bringing the total case number to 2,270 cases. The remaining case with pending residence information has been assigned to Regina.

Dr. Shahab said in a media conference on Friday he encourages the public to continue following safety protocols, as a vaccine is not expected this year.

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“We all are looking forward to when the pandemic will be over and it will be over sometime next year. We hope there will be a vaccine available early 2021,” he explained.

He also said there has been a recent significant rise in positive cases in young adults, and this is a trend the public needs to be mindful of.

“We are seeing a significant and definite trend in young adults aged 14-39. The test positive rate in that demographic is also increasing at around two per cent.”

Gospel Worship in Prince Albert

Twenty-three of today’s new cases have been linked to close contacts/gatherings. Note that “superspreader” events are not limited to those who attended the event itself, but quickly transmit in local settings. The most recent summary data available indicates that 79 individuals in multiple communities have tested positive for COVID-19 are linked to the Gospel Worship event in Prince Albert, including case contacts of attendees. At least 250 contacts have been part of the contact investigation relative to this superspreader event.

Latest cases

Nine people are in hospital. Seven people are receiving inpatient care; five in the Saskatoon zone, and two in the North Central zone. Two people are in intensive care, one in Saskatoon and one in Regina.

Of the 2,270 cases in the province to date, 318 cases are travellers, 1,101 are community contacts (including mass gatherings), 628 have no known exposures, and 223 are under investigation by local public health.​

Overall in Saskatchewan to date, 78 cases are healthcare workers; however, the source of the infections may not be related to healthcare in all instances.

COVID-19 map. (Submitted photo/ Saskatchewan Health Authority)

There are 394 cases involving people 19 years of age and under, while the remainder are adults.

In the province 771 cases are in the 20-39 age range, 682 are in the 40-59 age range, 352 are in the 60-79 age range and 71 are in the 80-plus range.

Fifty-one per cent of the cases are females and 49 per cent are males.

There are 25 deaths related to COVID-19 have been reported to date.

There are:

• 468 cases are from the south area (226 south west, 209 south central, 33 south east)
• 469 cases are from the Saskatoon area
• 397 cases are from the far north area (365 far north west, 0 far north central, 32 far north east)
• 363 cases are from the north area (141 north west, 142 north central, 80 north east)
• 325 cases are from the central area (188 central west, 137 central east)
• 248 cases are from the Regina area

To date, 225,532 COVID-19 tests have been performed in Saskatchewan.

The latest COVID-19 cases in Saskatchewan. (Aaron Schulze/northeastnow Staff)

Saskatchewan dashboard

For more specific data for each region visit the Government of Saskatchewan’s dashboard.

Not following Public Health Orders may result in fines

The SHA explained there can be very serious consequences for not following Public Health Orders, including fines in cases where negligence or misconduct have been found.

Fines may be $2,000 for individuals and $10,000 for corporations, plus a victim surcharge.

Two additional fines have been issued: one to an individual and one to a corporation for failure to abide by the public health order. A business has been ordered to temporarily close for having inadequate COVID-19 mitigation measures in place. The owners/operators will work with the Saskatchewan Health Authority to rectify these issues.

Private gathering sizes reduced today

As of today, private indoor gatherings may have a maximum of 15 people in the home or in buildings located on the private property (eg garages, sheds). Two-metre physical distancing should be observed when people from outside the extended household are present.

This will not impact restaurants, licensed establishments, banquet halls as well as weddings, funerals and religious gatherings which are all required to follow seating and physical distancing guidelines. Any event that occurs in a private dwelling, including weddings, religious gathering, and funerals, must abide by the 15 person gathering limit.

Latest NITHA COVID-19 cases

The Northern Inter-Tribal Health Authority released their daily COVID-19 update that are specific to their communities.

According to their Facebook page, to date there are 82 cases that have recovered.

There are three cases active in the Far North West, 21 cases are active in the Far North East.

Twenty-two cases are active in the North Central, one of which is in hospital, and ten cases are active in the North East.

NITHA COVID-19 map for Oct. 16, 2020. (NITHA Saskatchewan/ Facebook)

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panews@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @princealbertnow