Newswire

OTTAWA -- The federal government-backed exposure notification smartphone app has launched, marking the beginning of a new frontier in the coronavirus fight: alerting participating Canadians when they come in proximity to someone who has tested positive for COVID-19. The app—called COVID Alert— will compile anonymized data and use reports from confirmed positive COVID-19 cases to…

The provincial government is allowing more people to apply for a program designed to help employees working with vulnerable people during COVID-19. At the start of the pandemic, the province announced a $400 per month wage top-up for workers in seniors' facilities, licensed daycares and shelters. Originally, the program would only provide the money if workers earned less than $2,500 per…

The University of Saskatchewan's VIDO-InterVac has contracted two Canadian pharmaceutical companies to manufacture ingredients for its potential COVID-19 vaccine to be used in the first stages of human clinical trials.  Toronto-based Dalton Pharma Services announced in a news release Tuesday it will be making parts of the vaccine being developed by the Vaccine and…

It's a scaled back model, but Saskatoon is set to get a safe drug consumption site on Oct. 1. The planned facility will be located at the AIDS Saskatoon property on 20th Street West. The group is changing its name to Prairie Harm Reduction to reflect its broader mandate. Organizers had originally envisioned a centre with two paramedics operating 24 hours a day, year round.…

As COVID-19 case numbers continue to rise in Saskatchewan, an internal health authority memo reveals concerns about rising hospital bed occupancy and testing centres being at maximum capacity, among other "emerging issues."   The number of new cases has spiked dramatically in Saskatchewan in the past two weeks, setting new records for the new cases reported in a day.…