NHR sees slight COVID-19 case spike, Flin Flon district cases jump, Sask. cases stay high

Things aren’t getting any better in Saskatchewan for COVID-19, while cases in and around the Flin Flon/Creighton/Denare Beach area are going up.

The province reported its single worst day for COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began Sept. 13, seeing 449 cases added to the provincial rolls throughout the province. Things got worse Tuesday, with Saskatchewan clearing 500 new cases in one day for the first time. Another 506 COVID-19 cases were found in the province Sept. 14.

Thirty-four of those new Sept. 14 cases - 183 active total - are in the far north east 2 health zone, which covers Creighton, Denare Beach, Flin Flon, Sask. and other nearby communities, including Deschambault Lake and Pelican Narrows.

Pelican Narrows and Deschambault Lake are confirmed by the Northern Inter-Tribal Health Authority (NITHA) to be community outbreak sites. Pelican Narrows is up to 62 active cases as of Sept. 13, according to the Angelique Canada Health Centre. Fifteen more people tested positive for COVID-19 over the weekend. A total of 667 people in Pelican Narrows have tested positive for COVID-19 since the pandemic began - over 300 people are now isolating in the community.

Deschambault Lake is now down to 39 active cases, having found another 14 cases over the weekend according to the community’s Jonah Sewap Memorial Health Centre. A total of 180 people in Deschambault Lake have tested positive for COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic.

The whereabouts of the remaining cases are not currently known, but wherever they may be, it doesn’t appear likely that they’re in Creighton, Denare Beach or the Saskatchewan side of Flin Flon. Four cases of COVID-19 were found in the area in the week before Sept. 8, but the number of active cases in the area is less than five according to the most recent data from the Saskatchewan Health Authority.

Manitoba

Things are better on the other side of the border, but the situation isn’t as secure as it once seemed.

The Flin Flon/Snow Lake/Cranberry Portage/Sherridon health district saw its own spike in COVID-19 last week, reporting 16 new cases in the last week. Eight of those cases are still active.

The Northern Health Region (NHR) climbed back over 100 active cases this week, sitting now at 117 active people with COVID-19 as of Sept. 14. While the number is climbing, five of the six health zones in northern Saskatchewan have more cases than all of northern Manitoba does as of press time, despite having far smaller populations.

Two health districts continue to host most of the cases - the Island Lake district has 53 active cases as of Sept. 14 according to provincial data, but that total may be out of date as the number of recoveries or deaths has not been consistent with the number of new cases found. Island Lake’s active case count has been around the same level in recent weeks, with few new cases found but few new recoveries reported.

The other region with a high active case count is The Pas/OCN/Kelsey, where 30 people are listed as positive cases.

Vaccinations

New data from Manitoba and Saskatchewan public health is showing success in the provinces’ vaccination campaigns.

Despite now making up a small minority of Manitoba’s population, unvaccinated people are making up a vast majority of the province’s COVID-19 cases.

Seven out of every 10 active cases province-wide are in people who were not fully vaccinated against COVID-19, while only four of the province’s 29 people who are hospitalized with active COVID-19 cases are fully vaccinated. All of Manitoba’s current intensive care admissions with active COVID-19 are unvaccinated.

In Manitoba, 78.7 per cent of eligible people have received both doses of COVID-19 vaccines. About 83.6 per cent of all eligible Manitobans have received at least one dose.

In Saskatchewan, 89 per cent of the 449 new cases found Sept. 13 were in people who weren’t fully vaccinated. Case rates for Saskatchewan are between 14 and 15 times higher for unvaccinated people than they are for fully vaccinated people.