Province Urges Residents to Re-Examine “Household Contacts” and Reduce Regular Contacts Heading Into Winter

With the weather gradually get cooler and activities becoming more of an indoor thing, the Saskatchewan Health Authority is urging people to re-examine their existing household contacts and reduce the number of regular contacts if need be.

The suggestion comes as the Ministry of Health’s Tuesday update showed 16 new cases of COVID-19 in the province, six from the Saskatoon area and three from the Central East zone. However, there were 20 people reported to have recovered from the novel coronavirus since Monday, leaving the number of active cases of COVID-19 at 139 in Saskatchewan. A second person is said to have been admitted to hospital since the last update, receiving inpatient care in Saskatoon in addition to the person in an I-C-U in Regina.

The remaining new cases of the virus in the province were two each from the Regina area and South East zone, one each from the North Central and Far North West regions with one case location pending. In total, there have been 1,984 reported cases of COVID-19 in Saskatchewan since the pandemic was declared in mid-March with 1,821 people having recovered.

With a return to more indoor spaces, it’s necessary to examine your extended household and potentially reduce your number of regular contacts.

“As the risk of local transmission increases, now is the time to reset your household and reduce the risk to those who matter most to you,” Saskatchewan Chief Medical Health Officer Dr. Saqib Shahab said. “We are all now part of other cohorts: in the workplace, at school, at extracurricular activities. Observing the necessary public health guidance in each of these settings and keeping our close contact list short is a vital step in reducing the risk of COVID-19 transmission.”

Your extended household is the people you can hug and touch, or those who can become part of your daily and weekly routines. This be should be 15 people or less. Ideally it is only members of your direct household.
Assess your extended household. Does it include children in school settings, school staff, essential employees, or vulnerable populations like seniors or those with underlying health conditions? Consider that all of your contacts are now their contacts, too.
In the event that you are required to provide your activities and contacts as part of a public health contact investigation, can you name all those individuals you have come into close contact with over the last two weeks? If you cannot, adjust your routines and close contacts.
Stay home from all activities and workplaces even if you are experiencing mild symptoms.

Of the 1,984 cases in the province to date:

303 cases are travellers;
984 are community contacts (including mass gatherings);
570 have no known exposures; and
127 are under investigation by local public health.

Overall in Saskatchewan to date:

76 cases are healthcare workers; however, the source of the infections may not be related to healthcare in all instances.
344 cases involve people 19 years of age and under, while the remainder are adults.
656 cases are in the 20-39 age range; 607 are in the 40-59 age range; 312 are in the 60-79 age range; and 65 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:
- 456 cases are from the south area (225 south west, 205 south central, 26 south east)
- 410 cases are from the Saskatoon area
- 360 cases are from the far north area (351 far north west, 0 far north central, 9 far north east)
- 282 cases are from the north area (132 north west, 81 north central, 69 north east)
- 281 cases are from the central area (176 central west, 105 central east)
- 194 cases are from the Regina area
- One (1) case has pending residence location

To date, 203,733 COVID-19 tests have been performed in Saskatchewan. As of October 4, 2020 when other provincial and national numbers are available from Public Health Agency of Canada, Saskatchewan’s per capita rate was 142,435 people tested per million population. The national rate was 204,720 people tested per million population.

On Monday, 1,597 COVID-19 tests were performed in Saskatchewan.