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This has sparked some public frustration, with residents in smaller centres demanding to know if COVID-19 cases have been confirmed in their communities.

The reason for the province’s hesitation to name every specific community where a COVID-19 case occurs comes down to privacy laws. According to Saskatchewan’s Privacy Commissioner Ronald J. Kruzeniski, naming a small community where a case happened increases the risk of a patient being publicly identified.

“While you can probably say how many are in Regina, Saskatoon or Moose Jaw or Prince Albert, but if you get to a community of 300, and you say ‘So and so who’s 72,’ You’ve pretty well identified the person,” said Kruzeniski during a phone interview this week.

Under privacy laws, the government can give out general information on COVID-19 cases that doesn’t identify individuals, but there’s a balance the government has to strike so it doesn’t go too far.

“The one dilemma they have, as your information gets more granular, it gets closer to actually some people being able to identify who the person is,” said Kruzeniski.

He said it might be possible for the province to go further and list cases in smaller cities than Saskatoon or Regina, but it’s a “slippery slope.”

“Is the cutoff point Humboldt, is the cutoff point Melville? What size of community do you stop at?,” said Kruzeniski.

Photo by BRANDON HARDER / Regina Leader-Post

A representative from the Ministry of Health said there is no set cut-off for the size of communities when it comes to listing the location of cases.