After being brought up in Thursday’s physician town hall, Saskatchewan’s health minister Paul Merriman says the pressure being felt inside Saskatoon’s critical care system doesn’t fall solely on COVID-19.
“There’s a lot of non-COVID ICU pressures in Saskatoon,” Merriman said Friday. “We’re managing it the same way we would manage anything. If we have to go into surge temporarily, we’re prepared for that.”
On Friday, the province reported there are currently 65 people receiving care in Saskatoon hospital, 52 of which are receiving inpatient care — 13 people are requiring intensive care.
There are 149 people in hospital from COVID-19 throughout Saskatchewan as of Friday — 12 less than there were on Thursday.
“I can’t thank the health care workers enough for being able to manage what has been a challenging situation just overall with COVID in the last few months,” Merriman said.
Overall, COVID-19 numbers in the province are trending down since this time last month. The seven-day average as of Friday is 203. The seven-day average on April 14 was 273.
The province reported 50 new cases of COVID-19 in Saskatoon on Friday.
“We’ve got some really encouraging numbers there, but by no means we’re at the end of this,” Merriman said.
“We have to keep going and make sure we get that first shot now and then starting on Monday, which is very exciting, people could start getting their second shot.”
To date, the province has vaccinated 553,389 people in Saskatchewan.
Data found in the physician town hall latest report, found here, also showed there were COVID-19 cases related to travel from Alberta.
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