21 COVID-19 cases, some involving variants, tied to outdoor southwest Sask. event

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Twenty-one people are infected with COVID-19, including some cases involving coronavirus variants of concern, following an outdoor gathering in southwest Saskatchewan that's been declared an outbreak, health officials say.

More testing is needed to verify which of the highly transmissible variants of concern is involved.

The Saskatchewan Health Authority is also warning people of a heightened risk of infection from coronavirus variants because of several largeoutdoor gatherings in the southwest area of the province.

The events"[failed] to comply with current public health measures," a Wednesday afternoon news release said, but the health authority did not provide any details about the event.

"We do not comment about specific enforcement investigations," aspokesperson for the SHA said.

The increased riskis present inRosetown, Kindersley, Maple Creek, Swift Current, Davidson, Moose Jaw and surrounding areas, according to the health authority.

Those communities fall under fivedifferent zones monitored by health officials. Of those, theSouth Central2 zone, which includes Moose Jaw and 14 other communities, has the largest COVID-19 caseload by far. The zone has 149 active cases of COVID-19, including eight announced on Wednesday.

The remaining communities fall under the Central West 1, Central West 2, South West 1 andSouth West 2 zones, which respectively reported 15, 14, 31 and 33 active cases on Wednesday.

Under current health rules, private and public outdoor gatherings are capped at 10 people. The release reminded residents of those areas to, among other things, "limit gatherings and ensure gathering sizes do not exceed public health orders."

Health Minister Paul Merriman said he was briefed onthe situation but did not offer details.

"We have to do our investigation," hesaid. "Like we do with any complaint or anything that is being investigated by our public health inspectors or the police, we want to do a [complete]investigation on that."

CBC News has reached out theRCMP for more detail.