How Saskatchewan reached the 10,000 coronavirus case milestone

It took 248 days for Saskatchewan to record 5,000 overall COVID-19 cases in the province. It only took 22 days to double that number.

Health officials reported 415 new COVID-19 cases on Dec. 6, pushing the total number of coronavirus cases in the province to 10,139 in the nearly nine months since the first case was reported.

That was back on March 12, when a person in their 60s who had recently travelled to Egypt was reported to have contracted the novel coronavirus.

The second case in the province was reported the next day — a person who had travelled to Oregon.

Eight new cases were reported on March 18, pushing the overall total to 16, as a state of emergency was declared in Saskatchewan.

Measures imposed at the time included limiting public gatherings to no more than 50 people, capacity limits at restaurants and bars, and suspending non-urgent and elective surgeries.

The first daily report of double-digit cases was on March 23 when 14 new cases were reported. It raised the overall case number at the time to 66.

Saskatchewan broke the 100-case barrier on March 27 when nine new cases were reported — bringing the overall total to 104.

Two COVID-19-related deaths were reported on March 29 — the first deaths in the province. Both individuals were in their 70s. As of Dec. 7, 60 deaths have been reported.

On April 6, Saskatchewan had over 250 confirmed cases. On that date, the province reported four new cases to bring the overall total to 253.

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Premier Scott Moe announced the province’s reopening plan on April 22, saying it will be carried out in five phases.

A new milestone was hit on May 6 when 25 new cases were reported to bring the overall total to 512.

Active cases reached a low of 16 on June 7 — and have been climbing ever since.

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For the first time in almost a month, the province reported a daily double-digit increase in new cases on June 15 — 18 — most of those connected to a wake and funeral in the far north. The last time there was a double-digit increase in daily new cases was on May 20 — 21 cases.

The number of active cases reached 101 on June 24, the first time active cases reached the 100-case threshold.

The youngest COVID-19-related death to date was reported on July 7 — an individual in their 20s from the north region.

Saskatchewan reaches the 1,000-case milestone on July 22, which Moe called “very concerning” but “not entirely unexpected.”

It took 78 days for Saskatchewan to double its overall case total. On Oct. 8, 18 new cases were reported, pushing the total number of cases to 2,012.

Another milestone was reached on Nov. 5 when 128 new cases were reported — the first time there was a triple-digit increase in daily cases.

On Nov. 15, Saskatchewan broke the 5,000-case barrier when it reported 181 new cases — with the overall total rising to 5,001.

The last day Saskatchewan had a double-digit daily increase in new cases was on Nov. 19 — 98. Since then, all daily case numbers have been in the triple digits.

A one-day record was set on Nov. 21 when 433 new cases were reported.

Twenty-two days after breaking the 5,000-case barrier, Saskatchewan went over 10,000 cases on Dec. 6 — 10,139 cases — after recording its second-highest daily total of 415 cases.

Nazeem Muharjarine, an epidemiologist at the University of Saskatchewan’s College of Medicine, said the virus is spreading in both urban centres and rural communities.

“Outbreaks are happening all over the province, not just only in one place,” Muharjarine told Global News, who said he doesn’t expect the numbers to go down the same way they went up.

“It will continue to rise, perhaps not in the same accelerated pace we have seen in the last 30 days because there have been some measures that have been put in place,” he said.

As of Dec. 7, Saskatchewan is under a number of public health measures in an effort to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Some of those measures include mandatory masking in public places, limiting indoor gatherings in private homes to five people and outdoor gatherings limited to 30 people.

Muharjarine said it usually takes seven to 10 days to see if new public health measures have any effect.

“I think they do have an incremental effect, but not the kind of effect that we would see if we were to take a more comprehensive wholesale measure like a circuit breaker or a short-term hard lockdown,” he said.

“It has been proven to work in many other places around the world.”

The current public health order will be reviewed by the province’s chief medical health officer on Dec. 17.