COVID-19 in Sask: 8 new cases, Phase 4 of reopening plan now allows garage sales

The Saskatchewan government announced the easing up some of the COVID-19 precautions Tuesday, such as allowing the return of door-to-door canvassing and sales, as well as 24-hour gyms and yard or garage sales.

Salespeople or others going door-to-door are asked to maintain adequate physical distance, practise regular hand-washing and not share pencils or other supplies.

In regard to yard and garage sales, the government guidelines recommend getting adequate physical distancing, keeping group size limitations in order and holding single household sales rather than group sales.

The current limit on groups of people in Saskatchewan is 30, with adequate physical distance up to 150 people, or less in some areas.

As of Tuesday, there are reduced distancing requirements for several activities:

• Drive-in theatres: distance between vehicles reduced to two metres, down from five metres.
• Retail guidelines, libraries and places of worship: the length of time that returned or donated items must be held has been reduced to 24 hours, down from 72 hours.
• Fitness facilities: 24-hour access to fitness facilities is permitted, but the gym should ensure registration of guests to facilitate contact tracing, if required.
• Campgrounds: laundry facilities are now able to open following under guidelines for safe operation.

8 new cases

There were eight new cases of COVID-19 announced in Saskatchewan on Tuesday, spread out over four of the province's regions.

Two cases were announced in the far north region, two in the central region, three in the southern region and one in the Saskatoon area.

Tuesday's cases bump the number of overall cases recorded in the province since the novel coronavirus was first detected in the province in March to 970. Of those, 142 are currently active.

There are sixty known active cases in the central region, 46 in the southern region, 19 in the Saskatoon area, seven in the Regina area, six in the far north region and four in the north region.

Eleven more recoveries were recorded on Tuesday, meaning 813 people in the province have recovered. There have been 15 deaths overall.

There were 733 tests processed on Monday, a drop after a five-day span of 1,000 or more tests being processed daily. There have been 83,676 tests administered and processed overall.

According to the latest provincial data, 187 cases have been linked to travel, 528 cases linked to community contacts or mass gatherings, 168 cases have no known exposure or community transmission, and 87 cases are currently being investigated.