Five more cases of COVID-19 have emerged in Saskatchewan, with four of the new cases in the Far North, in the La Loche area, and one new case in the Regina area.

This gives Saskatchewan 582 total cases of COVID-19 since the pandemic began. There were 13 recoveries reported as well, bringing the provincial total to 398 recoveries.

There have been six who have died over the course of the pandemic. And there are 10 people currently in hospital. Of those, three are in ICU, and all of those are in Saskatoon. One person is in inpatient care in Regina.

Of the 178 currently active cases, 146 are in the far north, 21 are in the north, nine are in Saskatoon, one is in the central region, and one is in Regina. There are no active cases in the south region, which includes Moose Jaw.

Of the 582 provincial cases overall, 139 are travel-related, 302 are community contacts or mass gatherings, 67 have no known exposures and 76 are under investigation by public health.

Forty-eight of the cases are health care workers, and the province says the infections may not be because of their health care in all instances.

A total of 163 of the cases are from the Saskatoon area, 76 are from the Regina area, 106 are from the north, 206 are from the far north, 15 are from the south and 12 are from the central region.

Eighty-one cases are of people 19 and younger, and 116 are in the 60-and-older range. Of all of the cases, 51 per cent are in male patients and 49 per cent are female.

Thusfar, 38,728 tests have been performed in Saskatchewan.

Saskatchewan has the fifth most active cases in Canada, more than Manitoba, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, PEI and Newfoundland and Labrador combined.

The province announced that COVID-19 testing will be available to all who work outside the home, with particular attention to those returning to work for the Re-Open Saskatchewan plan.

"The following at-risk populations will be proactively tested:

•       All patients upon admission or in advance of a planned admission to an acute care hospital for a stay anticipated to be greater than 24 hours.  This includes all expectant mothers entering a health facility to give birth.

•       Immunocompromised asymptomatic individuals, including cancer patients in advance of undergoing immunosuppressive procedures such as chemotherapy.

•       All health staff working with immunocompromised patients.

•       Mobile (worksite) testing in high volume work settings (factories, industrial settings, etc.)

This is in addition to current testing requirements for:

•       All residents identified by public health as a contact of someone known or suspected of having COVID-19.

•       Individuals identified by public health at a high risk due to active spread of COVID-19 in their workplace or community.
•       All residents upon admission and re-admission to long-term and personal care homes.

•       All residents and staff in long-term and personal care homes upon notification of a COVID-19 positive resident or staff member."

“The Saskatchewan Health Authority will establish the process to start testing this expanded list,” the provincial government’s release Thursday continued. “Details on accessing testing will be provided the week of May 18.”

They also said work will continue to find active cases among homeless and other people in vulnerable settings.

“Public Health will continue to identify and test individuals who are at high risk of infection due to spread of COVID-19 in their household, community or workplace,” the release said.

Nationally as of Thursday afternoon, there have been over 73,300 confirmed cases and over 5,400 deaths from COVID-19. There have also been nearly 36,000 recoveries. The United States was over 85,000 deaths Wednesday afternoon and is over 1.4 million cases.