Four residents who tested positive for COVID-19 have died. Three of the deceased were residents from the North Central, Regina and Southeast zones and in the 80+ age group and one resident was from South Central in the 70-79 age group.
There are 329 new cases of COVID-19 to report in Saskatchewan on Nov. 27, bringing the provincial total to date to 7,691 cases. The new cases are located in the Far Northwest (8), Far Northeast (4), Northwest (23), North Central (21), Northeast (1), Saskatoon (158), Central West (6), Central East (11), Regina (61), Southwest (16), South Central (1) and Southeast (14) zones and five new cases have pending residence information.
Four cases with pending residence information have been assigned to the North Central zone.The seven-day average of daily new cases is 268 (22.1 new cases per 100,000 population).
Of the 7,691 reported cases, 3,263 are considered active, including 160 cases in the southeast. A total of 4,384 people have recovered, including 208 new recoveries as of Nov. 27.
There are 111 people are in hospital, with 95 people receiving inpatient care; one in the Far Northwest, eight in the Northwest, 12 in North Central, one in Northeast, 32 in Saskatoon, two in Central East, 16 in Regina, two in Southwest, one in South Central and 20 in the Southeast zone. Sixteen people are in intensive care: one in Northwest, 11 in Saskatoon, one in Southwest and three in Regina.
Of the 7,691 cases in the province, 466 cases are travelers; 3,419 are community contacts (including mass gatherings); 1,569 have no known exposures; 2,237 are under investigation by local public health, and 241 cases are healthcare workers; however, the source of the infections may not be related to healthcare in all instances.
By age category, 1,611 cases involve people 19 years of age and under; 2,740 cases are in the 20-39 age range; 2,045 are in the 40-59 age range; 1,020 are in the 60-79 age range; and 270 are in the 80-plus range. Confirmation of age is pending for five cases.
About 51 per cent of the cases are females and 49 per cent are males. Forty-four deaths related to COVID-19 have been reported to date.
Of 7,691 confirmed cases, 2,328 cases are from the Saskatoon area; 1,599 cases are from the north area (565 northwest, 754 north central, 280 northeast); 1,273 cases are from the Regina area; 1,009 cases are from the south area (372 southwest, 384 south central, 253 southeast); 860 cases are from the far north area (575 far northwest, 79 far north central, 206 far northeast); 593 cases are from the central area (268 central west, 325 central east), and 29 cases have pending residence information.
To date, 334,051 COVID-19 tests have been processed in Saskatchewan. As of Nov. 25, when other provincial and national numbers were available, Saskatchewan’s per capita rate was 214,607 people tested per million population. The national rate was 297,154 people tested per million population.
A total of 3,687 COVID-19 tests were processed in Saskatchewan on Nov. 26.
New Pilot Projects on Rapid Point of Care Testing Added
New rapid point of care testing units (Abbott ID Now) with results in 15 minutes are being rolled out in a pilot program for hospitals in Regina, Saskatoon, Prince Albert and Moose Jaw, and mobile testing locations to quickly determine status of an asymptomatic individual. This testing option will assist with hospital admissions, and discharges to a long-term-care facility.
A rapid antigen test (Abbot Panbio) pilot project is also being rolled out to participating long-term care (LTC), personal care homes (PCH) and congregate living settings. Results are available in 15 minutes and used for rapid recurrent asymptomatic screening of staff and residents.
All rapid positive tests will be presumed positive and will need to be confirmed by a laboratory test for now.
Public Health Measures in Effect November 27
For more information on the additional public health measures that took effect as of Nov. 27 or to see the Public Health Order, visit https://www.saskatchewan.ca/covid19.
