As of April 12, Saskatchewan has seven new confirmed cases and two new presumptive cases of COVID-19, bringing the total to 298 reported cases.

The presumptive positives are due to more testing machines being added in Saskatchewan.

A new machine to test for COVID-19 is online at the Roy Romanow Provincial Laboratory (RRPL). The first 10 positive specimens identified by the new machine must be considered presumptive positives and require confirmation using RRPL’s existing machine.

In addition, Meadow Lake has started testing and these cases are considered presumptive positives until confirmed by the RRPL.

Of the total number of reported cases, 130 cases are considered active.

Seventeen more people have recovered, bringing the provincial total to 164.

There are seven people in hospital in the province, who are all receiving inpatient care. No one is in intensive care.

Of the 298 cases in the province:
• 129 cases are travel related;
• 112 are contacts or linked to mass gatherings;
• 25 have no known exposures; and
• 32 are under investigation by local public health.

Overall in Saskatchewan:
• 32 of the cases are health care workers; however, the source of the infections may not be related to health care in all instances.
• 147 of the cases are from the Saskatoon area, 63 from the Regina area, 56 from the north, 15 from the south, 10 from the central region and seven from the far north.
• 20 cases involve people 19 years of age and under, while the remainder are adults.
• 129 cases are in the 20-44 age range; 99 are in the 45-64 age range; and 50 are in the 65-plus range.
• 53 per cent of the cases are males and 47 per cent are females.
• Four deaths related to COVID-19 have been reported to date.

To date, 19,276 COVID-19 tests have been performed in the province. Saskatchewan continues to have the second highest rate of testing per capita among provinces that have reported.

Case surveillance and testing information, including regional locations of cases, is available at www.saskatchewan.ca/COVID19.

Public inquiries may be directed to COVID19@health.gov.sk.ca.