COVID-19 cases in and around Flin Flon have risen in recent weeks, but the worst of the local case surge may be over.
In the past two weeks, the Creighton, Denare Beach and Flin Flon, Sask. area saw 12 new COVID-19 cases, with several having recovered as of The Reminder’s press time. The Angelique Canada Health Centre in Pelican Narrows reported 23 new cases Sept. 27, but overall cases have dropped due to a large number of people recovering from COVID-19. As of Sept. 27, 59 people in Pelican Narrows have active COVID-19 cases. In Deschambault Lake, 17 people have COVID-19 as of Sept. 27, according to the Jonah Sewap Memorial Health Centre.
Meanwhile, after two weeks of increasing case counts, the Flin Flon/Snow Lake/Cranberry Portage/Sherridon health district is now down to one active case of COVID-19. This comes after more than 30 cases were found in a two-week period earlier this month.
Active COVID-19 cases have started to decline in northern Saskatchewan. While over 2,000 people were considered to have active COVID-19 cases at the start of last week, the number of infected people in far north and northern Saskatchewan communities has dropped to 1,729 as of Sept. 28. That trend isn’t consistent with the rest of the province, where the number of cases have reached almost 4,800 as of Sept. 28. Saskatchewan’s health care system is approaching a boiling point, with even COVID-19-related surge capacity for intensive care nearly being reached as of Sept. 28.
Manitoba’s COVID-19 situation is far less severe than Saskatchewan’s as of Sept. 28, but alarms are starting to be raised.
“Public health officials advise that Manitoba is now clearly at the beginning of the fourth wave of COVID-19 cases,” reads the province’s Sept. 27 COVID-19 report.
“Manitobans are reminded to continue to practice the fundamentals, reduce the number of close contacts and to get immunized as soon as possible.”
Case loads have slowly increased in recent weeks, with over 100 new cases reported both Sept. 25-26 and another 93 cases found Sept. 27. Another 42 cases were found Sept. 28. Almost 50 per cent of the province’s new COVID-19 cases from over the weekend are in the Southern Health-Sante Sud region, along with about a third of the province’s active cases. The Northern Health Region (NHR) has 87 active cases as of Sept. 27, about 14 per cent of the province’s case load. Out of the 366 new cases found in Manitoba between Sept. 23-27, 25 of those cases are in the NHR, with most of those new cases found in a new community outbreak in Norway House, where 15 more people have tested positive in the last four days as of press time.
Provincial health officials are warning of possible increases if Manitobans fall away from basic steps to mitigate COVID-19 spread - staying home when possible, getting vaccinated and keeping social distance and wearing masks when possible.
“We see what’s been occurring with our neighbours to the west and we know we’re certainly at risk of seeing that. We know that despite relatively high vaccine uptake province-wide, there are pockets with relatively low vaccinated individuals and that’s put us at risk of a fourth wave. We’re starting to see those trends eventualize now,” said Manitoba chief provincial public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin Sept. 27.
As of Sept. 28, 82 Manitobans are in hospital due to COVID-19, including 19 people in intensive care, 13 of whom still have active COVID-19 cases. Seven of the people hospitalized are from the NHR - two of those seven people are in intensive care in Winnipeg. None of the 19 people in intensive care in Manitoba are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
