The number of hospitalized patients due to COVID-19, including those in I-C-U, went up again in Thursday’s update from the Ministry of Health even though there fewer than five per cent of processed tests were positive in the province in the report.

There were 98 new cases of the novel coronavirus, as opposed to 132 people recovering, leaving 2,066 active cases of COVID-19 in Saskatchewan. Of those, 83 people are in hospital, up from 76 on Wednesday, with 21 people in intensive care which is up from 17 on Wednesday. Of those 21 I-C-U patients, nine are in Saskatoon hospitals, five in Regina, four in the North Central zone, two in the Central East and one in the South West zones.

Of Thursday’s 98 new cases, 25 are from Regina, 14 from the South Central zone, 12 from each of the North Central and North West zones, 10 from Saskatoon, four with pending residence information and the remaining 21 new cases spread among six other zones. Since the pandemic was declared in mid-March, there have been 5,651 reported cases of the virus in the province with 32 deaths and 3,553 people having recovered.

Of the 5,651 cases in the province:

• 419 cases are travelers;
• 2,490 are community contacts (including mass gatherings);
• 1,176 have no known exposures; and
• 1,566 are under investigation by local public health.

Overall in Saskatchewan to date:

• 163 cases are healthcare workers; however, the source of the infections may not be related to healthcare in all instances.
• 1,189 cases involve people 19 years of age and under, while the remainder are adults.
• 2,059 cases are in the 20-39 age range; 1,539 are in the 40-59 age range; 701 are in the 60-79 age range; and 158 are in the 80-plus range. Confirmation of age is pending for five cases.
• 51 per cent of the cases are females and 49 per cent are males.
• 32 deaths related to COVID-19 have been reported to date.

Of 5,651 confirmed cases:

• 1,628 cases are from the Saskatoon area
• 1,208 cases are from the north area (402 north west, 564 north central, 242 north east)
• 836 cases are from the Regina area
• 749 cases are from the south area (279 south west, 313 south central, 157 south east)
• 701 cases are from the far north area (509 far north west, 50 far north central, 142 far north east)
• 503 cases are from the central area (226 central west, 277 central east)
• 26 cases have pending residence information

To date, 307,264 COVID-19 tests have been processed Saskatchewan. As of November 17, 2020 when other provincial and national numbers were available, Saskatchewan’s per capita rate was 201,581 people tested per million population. The national rate was 279,792 people tested per million population.

On Wednesday, 2,004 COVID-19 tests were processed in Saskatchewan.

Weekly Reporting of Testing Numbers and Cases for Youth

Monitoring the trends of COVID-19 cases in school-aged children, the weekly report of cases and testing numbers for children aged 0-19 with data by age categories and testing positivity rates has been posted for the week of November 8 to 14 at www.saskatchewan.ca/COVID19-Safe-Schools-Plan. Reports are published Thursdays.