A cluster of 13 COVID-19 cases linked to Lloydminster Hospital was a major focus of the province’s daily update on COVID-19 Wednesday.
In the wake of the new numbers, including news of the province’s sixth death as well as 11 new cases in La Loche, Premier Scott Moe announced the state of emergency has been extended for another two weeks.
As for the Re-Open Saskatchewan plan, phase one will not go ahead in either La Loche or Lloydminster on Monday as planned, but will proceed in the rest of the province.
Moe also urged provincial residents to continue their physical distancing and other measures, and added that if people were taking the Re-Open Saskatchewan plan as a signal to relax their personal responsibility, “that is a complete misinterpretation of what weve been saying,” he said.
“Today, almost all of the new cases are the results of outbreaks in two parts of the province,” Moe said.
“Both the city of Lloydminster and its hospital are in a unique situation as it is a city that straddles the border. The hospital serves patients both from Saskatchewan and from Alberta. It’s staffed by health workers from both provinces. The Saskatchewan Health Authority as well as Alberta Health Services are taking a number of steps to deal with the outbreak at Lloydminster Hospital.”
It was also noted there were very few active cases in the rest of the province. Dr. Saqib Shahab, chief medical health officer for the province, characterized the outbreaks in Lloydminster and La Loche as localized clusters; the rest of the province ”remains flat,” he said.
With respect to the 13 cases ftom Lloydminster Hospital, four new cases were reported Wednesday. Dr. Mandiangu Nsungu, Medical Health Officer Area for the SHA North region, confirmed there were also five new cases there on Tuesday.
The 13 cases consist of five health care workers and eight patients who either were still admitted or had been discharged already. He noted in some cases the diagnosis was made after individuals were discharged through contact tracing.
So far, a total of 34 cases of COVID-19 have been from Lloydminster, said Dr. Nsungu. Of those 18 have recovered and 16 are still active.
There is daily monitoring of the situation and he said health care workers are being screened every day.
There were also 11 new cases reported Wednesday from La Loche. Overall, there are now 38 cases reported from La Loche and 11 in nearby communities.
In response Premier Moe has asked for more testing in La Loche and the surrounding area. He reported SHA is in the process of deploying 50-100 additional staff to do aggressive surge testing and contact tracing, with a focus on long term care facility staff as well as residents, health centre staff as well as patients, drive-through testing availability, door to door testing of known contacts and anyone else who wants to be tested.
To ensure accommodation is available for anyone having difficulty in their self-isolation plan, the two schools will be used along with portable trailers if needed to accomodate 65 individuals, with ability to scale up if needed. Additional personal protective equipment is being sent to La Loche as well.
Dr. Rim Zayed reported there is expansion of testing sites in the community and expanded testing criteria, and increased capacity so there is no limitation tor testing and contact tracing. She reported they are also working with the community leadership of La Loche to providing “alternative confinement in cases where there is no ability for appropriate isolation.
