COVID-19 in Sask: Province announces 12 new cases, 5th death, 42 active cases in far north

The Saskatchewan government said Monday there are 12 new cases of COVID-19 in the province and all of them are in the northern part of the province: 11 new cases in the far north region and one in the north.

The province also confirmed the death of a man in his 80s over the weekend, the fifth coronavirus-related death recorded in the province during the pandemic.

The province says 29 of the reported cases in the far north are in La Loche.

"The cases in the La Loche area are connected to the outbreak at the oilsands camp in northern Alberta," a government news release said.

Seven people are currently in hospital, with two patients of those in intensive care.

There have been 28,296 tests for COVID-19 in the province since the first case was detected in March.

There were 652 tests completed on Saturday and 412 tests completed Sunday. The government had previously set a goal of processing 1,500 tests per day by the end of April.

Seventy-two cases are active in Saskatchewan. Forty-two are in the far north region with 30 active cases throughout the rest of Saskatchewan.

Travel has been linked to 139 cases, 149 are linked to close contact or mass gatherings and 35 cases have no known exposure. Investigation is ongoing in 42 other cases.