In the largest single-day increase since the COVID-19 pandemic first appeared in Saskatchewan, 18 new cases were announced on Saturday.

17 cases are confirmed, while one remains as presumptive.

The largest change came with the announcement that as of now, the Roy Romanow Provincial Laboratory (RRPL) in Regina now has the ability to do confirmatory testing for COVID-19 rather than sending presumptive test results to the National Microbiology Laboratory (NBL) in Winnipeg.

"This will speed up the process of cases being declared 'presumed' to 'confirmed' in the province," said Dr. Jessica Minion with the RRPL in a teleconference Saturday afternoon. "You will continue to see presumptive cases as we expand testing sites within the province."

The ability to receive in-province confirmation became official on Friday.

As of the last report, the RRPL is processing about 456 COVID-19 tests per day.

"We are testing all patients with respiratory presentations, as well as all long-term care patients at this point," Minion said. "That's in addition to people that have travel or other contacts - exposure to mass gatherings where transmission has occurred."

An expanded criteria of symptoms that would require testing - as well as additional testing sites - has not been deemed necessary at this point, though it's a possibility as the matter progresses.

"Further expansions may be coming in the future, but they're being reviewed both provincially, locally, and nationally on a very regular basis," Minion said. "At this time, the Roy Romanow Provincial Lab is able to maintain a 24-hour turnaround time from the time the specimen enters its building. We hope to maintain that without overloading the system to be able to get results as well as actionable contact tracing performed in as rapid a manner as possible for everybody who becomes a person of interest."

Saskatchewan now has 44 cases of COVID-19 in total.

25 cases have been confirmed, and 19 are presumptive.

That includes confirmation that, of the 22 frontline healthcare staff and physicians from the province who attended a curling bonspiel in Edmonton earlier this month, 11 have now tested positive for the coronavirus.

The attendees come from Saskatoon, Regina, and Prince Albert.

"This is a startling reminder of the risk in gatherings. Even as healthcare workers, while we take all the precautions at work, we are not immune to this virus in social settings," said Chief Medical Health Officer, Dr. Saqib Shahab, in the teleconference. "This is a stark reminder for all of us of the care we need to take immediately in any gatherings when we are outside, and generally avoid large gatherings when you cannot maintain that two-metre separation."

All of the cases are 20 years of age or older with the exception of one, which is still under investigation.

As well, of the 44 cases, three will currently continue to be monitored for the potential relation to community transmission - something that has no confirmation in any case at this point in time.

So, there's no [link to] travel, there's no attendance at a mass event where someone was positive, and that is of grave concern," said Dr. Shahab. "If you do not find any exposures in cases over three to five days - because sometimes you have to go back for 14 days before symptoms started, trace everything that someone did - If those dots are not connected over the next two or three days, we will have to confirm that there is community transmission in a specific location in Saskatchewan."

"As of today, we don't have that information, but in two or three days as our case numbers rise and we're unable to confirm the exposure, we will definitely have to state there is evidence of community transmission," added the province's CMHO.

65 percent of cases are male and 35 percent female as of Saturday afternoon.

"I would just like to remind everyone that, for all persons now, the new normal in Saskatchewan is if you are out shopping or collecting takeout, remain two metres apart and practice social distancing and hand hygiene," Shahab added. "Do not touch your eyes, nose, and mouth while you're out and about - come home, wash your hands."