The Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency (SPSA) has published a press release encouraging residents of the province to download its SaskAlert app; advertising it as a way to get more accurate and timely information on COVID-19.

SPSA President Marlo Pritchard says that it's not meant to replace a person's normal news.

"However, it's an effective method of pushing out urgent information province-wide, or to a localized area."

The SaskAlert app was launched in 2017 as part of that year's provincial public alerting strategy, the app allows users to receive public alerts either for an entire province, a particular municipality or a First Nation Community. It also has the ability to target an emergency alert to a specific region or municipality in the province.

Since December 31, 2019, when rumours of the serious nature of COVID-19 first began making waves in the southwest, the app has seen only a small increase in users, which prompted the government's press release.

The app is available for download on Android and Apple devices at http://emergencyalert.saskatchewan.ca/.