SK COVID update:

The sadness continues I'm afraid.

One resident in the South zone, who tested positive for COVID-19, has died.

The person was in the 80+ age category.

259 new cases, 9,244 total.

Far NW (9), Far NE (1), NW (21), N. Central (20), NE (2), Saskatoon (50), Central West (3), Central East (3), Regina (112), SW (21), S. Central (10), SE (6). One pending.

Seven-day average is 269.

4,017 active. 214 recoveries, 5,173 total.

128 in hospital.

104 inpatients: one in the Far NW, eight in the NW, nine in N. Central, one in the NE, 41 in Saskatoon, two in Central East, 20 in Regina, two in the SW, 20 in the SE.

24 in the ICU: one in the NW, three in N. Central, 11 in Saskatoon, nine in Regina.

Of the 9,244 cases:

486 cases are travelers;

3,929 are community contacts (including mass gatherings);

2,221 have no known exposures; and

2,608 are under investigation by local public health.

285 cases are healthcare workers; however, not all related to work.

1,909 cases are 19 and under, the rest are adults.

3,276 cases are in the 20-39 age range; 2,473 are in the 40-59 age range; 1,226 are in the 60-79 age range; and 355 are in the 80-plus range. Confirmation of age is pending for five cases.

50% female, 50% male.

To date, 353,638 COVID-19 tests have been processed in Saskatchewan.

Yesterday, 3,247 COVID-19 tests were processed.

Here is the weekly report on COVID and kids.

https://www.saskatchewan.ca/government/health-care-administration-and-provider-resources/treatment-procedures-and-guidelines/emerging-public-health-issues/2019-novel-coronavirus/safe-schools-plan/weekly-monitoring-report-children-and-youth

There is a news conference with the SHA CEO Scott Livingstone at 3pm.

@CJMENews and @CKOMNews will carry that live.

That's the update for today.

These are the details from the SHA.

Expecting a continued surge of patients , it is slowing down services so they can redeploy 600 staff to support the pandemic response.

It wants to avoid a broad reduction of services, so it will be a more targeted approach.

Creating capacity for 64 COVID patients requiring ICU care by mid-December to try to keep pace with projected demand. It means 28 per cent more ICU beds than currently exist right now in Saskatoon and Regina combined.

Creating capacity for 250 COVID patients by mid-December to try to keep pace with projected growth in demand. This is approximately equivalent to the capacity of the Cypress Regional Hospital in Swift Current and the Prince Albert Victoria Hospital combined.

Creating capacity for contact tracing of approximately 560 average cases per day to try to keep pace with projected growth in demand, including keeping pace with more than 6,000 hours of work per day created for contact tracers if cases reach this level by mid-Dec. as projected.

Strengthening the SHA’s supplemental labour pool to increase responsiveness to outbreaks and situations where large numbers of staff are required to isolate.

The SHA is reviewing surge plans every week to ensure each surge & any associated slow downs are as measured as possible to maintain an appropriate balance between the urgent needs of the pandemic response & the need for Sask residents to have access to every day health services.

Services affected include some primary health care services, elective surgeries in urban centres, endoscopy/cystoscopy procedures, Women & Children’s Programming, diagnostics, therapies, ambulatory care, registration resources, environmental & food and nutrition services...

...rehab services and home care services. It is critical to note that these services will still be available, just at reduced volumes or levels.

The scale of service slow downs range by location and service type.

In the vast majority of cases, these slow downs are simply reducing service volumes to enable redeployment of staff. There are some limited exceptions where services will be temporarily paused. These are highly localized like dental programs, therapeutic & rehab programs.

That's the main items.