Question Asked If COVID - 19 Has Been In Moose Jaw?

Whether there are any cases of COVID - 19 in the city and whether there has been any cases of COVID - 19 will, for now, remain a mystery.

At Monday evening’s regular Council meeting Councillor Crystal Froese asked of the question which is on the minds of many residents and that is has the virus been in the community and if so how many cases.

She asked the question of Dr Hortense Tabian medical health officer for Moose Jaw and region who was giving an informational and update presentation about COVID - 19 to Council.

“Probably one of the cases I get the most from citizens in Moose Jaw is and I know we do not want to go into specifics but people are wondering how many cases and have there been cases here in our city?” Councillor Froese asked. “I know it is not the Province’s rule to give numbers outside of the Saskatoon and Regina, I am asking that on behalf of the people who have enquired and have asked me if we know.”

“Part of the reason why we try to aggregate numbers is depending on our numbers…we do have our zones and because our numbers are really small we do not tend to want to specify very specifically. In our region right now we have a total of 14 active cases. Of which one is hospitalized,” Dr Tabian said.

The Saskatchewan government has been releasing the information based on larger zones with higher populations than a simple community name out of patient confidentiality. If a small community had a case or cases it would be easier for people to determine who has COVID - 19 and there is a risk of people who have contracted the virus being harassed if their identity was discovered.

“We have had a total of 434 cases in our region we cover and 113 of them were linked to close contact which is 26 percent…11 percent which was linked to travel and 39 due to local transmission,” Dr Tabian said.

Officially the mystery remains.