Premier Scott Moe announced on Monday Saskatchewan has now hit 300 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 178 having been reported as recovered.
鈥淭oday鈥檚 case numbers continue to show what we are doing in this province is working,鈥� said Moe.
鈥淭ogether, we are flattening the curve,鈥� he added.
Moe pointed out the 118 active cases is the lowest in the province since March 27.
鈥淣one of this is a reason for complacency,鈥� said Moe.
鈥淏ut, it is a reason for cautious optimism. It means we can start to think about what the process of reopening Saskatchewan will look like,鈥� he added.
Moe said the province is working to develop the reopen Saskatchewan plan, which he hopes will be released next week.
He added the province will be deploying GeneXpert systems across the province. The GeneXpert units provide results on location in under four hours without the swabs having to be submitted to the Roy Romanow Provincial Laboratory.
Moe said one of the units is already up and operating in Meadow Lake, another will be running in Prince Albert and additionally about a dozen communities throughout Saskatchewan will receive them.
鈥淭his should help us achieve our goal of 1500 tests per day by the end of the month,鈥� said Moe.
Chief medical health officer Dr. Saqib Shahab reiterated while most people are staying home, healthcare workers are moving forward and working. He added any steps that can mitigate risk to themselves and to patients in the coming days will remain very important.
To date, Saskatchewan has 300 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the province. Of those, 131 are related to travel, 120 are community contacts or linked to mass gatherings, 27 have no known exposures and 22 are under investigation by local public health.
Thirty-three cases are healthcare workers, 147 cases are from the Saskatoon area, 65 from the Regina area, 56 from the north, 15 from the south, 10 from the central region and seven from the far north.
To date, Saskatchewan continues to have the second highest rate of testing per capita among provinces with 19,804 tests performed.
