Want some good news in the COVID-19 fight?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 One strongly suspects you do.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 You probably need some good news after a month of fighting this virus.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Self-isolating at home and not being able to see friends and family and trying to keep six feet apart of everyone you meet as if they might be trying to steal your wallet or your pursue can be very exhausting.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 And as if health concerns were not enough, we also have to deal with the prospects of what all of this is doing to the economy and how long it might take to recover.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 It鈥檚 all been exhausting and the end is not necessarily in sight.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 To get through this, we need to keep in mind that this will be long fight with setbacks.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 We will get through this, but there are going to be many hurdles along the way.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Those ups and downs will the hardest part, especially, when it seems the 鈥渄owns鈥� always seem to be accompanied by tragic news of death.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 So to get through this bad news, let鈥檚 glean through the numbers to find something positive. And the numbers do show positive things. Let鈥檚 start with the numbers of new cases that, as of the writing of this column, seem to be trending in the right direction.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Early last week before the Easter weekend, Saskatchewan registered just four new cases on April 6 and only seven cases on April 7.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 The single-digit daily increase might be a bit misleading in that we know that there for any one COVID-19 positive test, there many times more cases where people haven鈥檛 been diagnosed.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 But even if one views the diagnosed cases like polling, it鈥檚 obviously good news to see smaller numbers.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 What the numbers also show is the value of social-distancing and perhaps the natural advantage that Rural Saskatchewan enjoy for a change.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 As of April 7, the case numbers show that out of the total 260 cases, show 131 in Saskatoon, 52 in Regina and 48 in the north.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 (The disproportionally high northern numbers are largely due to an infection at a snowmobile club banquet in Christopher Lake, showing exactly why Premier Scott Moe鈥檚 government wisely imposed the strict rules prohibiting public gatherings to less than 250 people and then later limited gatherings to less than 10 people.)
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 That left four cases in the far north, 10 in central Saskatchewan and 15 in southern Saskatchewan.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 With only 25 known cases in that vast area we call 鈥渞ural Saskatchewan鈥�, statistics show it might very well be one the safest places on Earth.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 So good have our strategies been at reducing these case numbers that, for the first time since Saskatchewan鈥檚 first case on March 12, we had more people who had recovered from COVID-19 in a day (14) than new identified cases (four).
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 That had led government to produce a new, positive statistic _ called 鈥渁ctive cases鈥� that totalled 169 as of April 7. (That was based on 260 known cases and 88 recoveries.)
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Here is a statistic that鈥檚 really promising: The number of 鈥渁ctive cases鈥� a week early on March 30 was only 159. In other words, there were only10 additional active cases in a week.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 聽This is literally what we mean when we say 鈥淔latten The Curve鈥�, limiting the growth so our emergency rooms aren鈥檛 swamped.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 And here is a bit more good statistical news: At 214 cases per million people, Saskatchewan has a lower rate of COVID-19 known infections than anywhere in Canada and the U.S. other than Minnesota and West Virginia. (And those two states are testing at half the rate.)
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 It鈥檚 a long fight, we haven鈥檛 won and there will be setbacks.
聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 But the numbers show we are making progress.
