Six sizable communities and their surrounding area in southwestern Saskatchewan have an increased risk of COVID-19 variants of concern according to the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA).

Early this afternoon the SHA sent out a press release stating that the following communities Rosetown, Kindersley, Maple Creek, Swift Current, Davidson, Outlook, and Moose Jaw could experience COVID-19 variants of concern.

The release was triggered by a number of recent large outdoor gatherings in the southwest and failure to comply with current public health measures.

"A lot of it not just depends on public health orders... But this is not the time to step down or reduce our measures, we need everyone playing their part," Dr. David Torr, a medical health officer with the SHA, said.

One large outdoor gathering, in particular, has caught the eye of the SHA and earlier today they declared an outbreak regarding it. To date, 21 COVID-19 cases have been linked to this gathering and include variants of concern. The specific variant isn't known at this time as additional testing is required. A contact tracing investigation is also underway.

"Within these variants, we find that a number of them are quite aggressive and therefore that means it's much easier to spread and much faster to spread," he said. "In many cases can cause a more severe disease and that is a real concern for us."

Currently, there have been nine confirmed COVID-19 variant cases in the southwest, with all of them being classified as B.1.1.1.7 (UK), although 48 have been detected by screening.

No age categories are shared by the SHA in regards to cases in the southwest but now that a fraction of the elder population has begun to receive the vaccination, the cases among people 40 and younger are on the rise.

"It's a double-jeopardy in that younger folks tend to mingle more and younger folks still are not immunized," he said. "We really need that component of the population to take even more precaution."

In today's COVID-19 update the SHA reported there are 31 cases of the virus in the South West subzone 1 and 33 cases in South West subzone 2.