COVID-19 in Sask.: Canadian military leaves province as active cases decrease

Members of the Canadian Armed Forces sent to Saskatchewan in late October left late last week, according to a social media post from a division of the military.

A total of 15 armed forces personnel began working at the Regina General Hospital on Oct. 28 to backfill nurses who were reassigned to support intensive care and acute care, which were strained by a swell in COVID-19patients.

Their original end date, Nov. 19, was extended to Friday.

"We go on the floor, we take on a patient load, and we see the immediate relief on the staff, because we're there to give them a better ratio," Capt. Guillaume Charbonneau, a critical care nursing officer, said in a press release.

"Maybe they were short-staffed that day and they were going to have more patients than they would have liked, which makes all the dynamics to keep those patients safe a bit harder."

Saskatchewan reported no deaths and an additional 70 cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, contributing to the total 81,363 since the beginning of the pandemic.

Despite reporting zero deaths in Saskatchewan, a note in the province's COVID-19 update said that one resident died while receivingcare in Ontario, but that information hasn't been added to the provincial count yet.

Of the 70 new cases, there were 18 (or about 26 per cent) recorded in kids aged five to 11.

The new cases reported Sunday are located in the following health regions:

• Northwest: five.
• North central: 10.
• Saskatoon: 15.
• Central east: 11.
• Regina: seven.
• South central: eight.
• Southeast: 11.

Location information was pending for threemore cases.

Unvaccinated people accounted for 57 of the new cases, and fully vaccinated people madeup 10 of the cases.

The province's active case number dropped below 700 active cases for the first time since Aug. 11, according to the provincial COVID-19 dashboard. There are now 696 known active cases.

The number of patients in Saskatchewan hospitals continue to hover between 130 and 140 as they have for the past week. On Sunday, the province reported 132 patients were in hospital care, two more than Saturday.

Of them, 31 are in intensive care. That doesn't include the additional three patients who continue to receive out-of-province care in Ontario.

There were 1,565 new tests recorded, bringing the total number to 1,287,667.

Saskatchewan reported 3,296 new COVID-19 vaccine shots on Sunday: 2,519 first doses and 777 second doses.

There have now been 1,760,834 doses of vaccine in the province, nearly 920,000 of which are first and more than 840,000 are second.

More than 81 per cent of the eligible population has received one shot of a COVID-19 vaccine and more than 74 per cent have received two.

While Saskatchewan once held some of the highest rates of active cases and new cases amongprovinces, they are falling below rates in others across Canada, according to the government of Canada.

On Friday, the province had 63 active cases per 100,000 people.

In comparison, Quebec had 108 cases per 100,000, Manitoba had 101 per 100,000 and Alberta had 100 per 100,000.