COVID-19 in Sask: 113 new cases reported, largely connected to Hatchet Lake outbreak

Saskatchewan reported 113 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, the largest single-day increase in cases since the beginning of June. 

The province said the rise in cases is "largely attributable" to the previously reported outbreak at the Hatchet Lake Denesuline First Nation, which is located about 850 kilometres north of Saskatoon near Wollaston Lake.

The First Nation at Hatchet Lake uses a rapid testing machine that supports rapid case contact identification.

Positive cases then have to be manually entered into the provincial system, which has been delayed as provincial staff worked to deal with the immediate outbreak. 

More provincial staff have been deployed to enter the COVID-19 testing results into the provincial system, the province said in a new release on Thursday.

The Saskatchewan Health Authority is assisting the Northern Inter-Tribal Health Agency, which has jurisdiction at Hatchet Lake. 

Voluntary mass testing is ongoing and vaccinations are being offered door-to-door at the First Nation. 

No new deaths 

The province reported no new deaths on Thursday, which leaves the total so far at 570 COVID-19-related deaths. 

However, the new cases pushed Saskatchewan's tally to 49,152 known cases since the beginning of the pandemic. 

An additional 17 people have recovered from the virus, bringing the number of people who have recovered from COVID-19 in the province to 48,167. 

Known active cases also increased on Thursday to 415.

The increase in cases bumped up the seven-day rolling average of new cases to 42 per day on Thursday. On Wednesday the same figure was 31 per day. 

It's still a drop from mid-April, when the average peaked at 287 cases per day. 

The new cases reported on Wednesday were in the following regions:

• Far northwest: two.
• Far north central: three.
• Far northeast: 58.
• Northwest: two.
• North central: two
• Saskatoon: 16.
• Central west: one.
• Central east: two.
• Regina: 12.

There are 15 cases with pending residence information. 

The province reported that there are 62 people receiving care in hospital with COVID-19, two fewer than the day before. 

Eleven of those 62 patients are receiving intensive care.

Vaccination data

As of Thursday, Saskatchewan has fully vaccinated 525,000 people. 

The tally was reached after 11,535 second doses were administered Wednesday.

Only 1,779 first doses were given out in the same time period.

The province has now provided 1,260,567 doses in total.