Although new cases of COVID-19 were down in Saskatchewan Wednesday, the number of hospitalized patients went up in the province. There were 164 new infections of the novel coronavirus reported by the Ministry of Health Wednesday down from the 175 on Tuesday and 235 on Monday. However, the number of hospitalized patients went up by six from Tuesday to 111 Wednesday. The number of people receiving treatment in an I-C-U is at 19. Eleven of the 19 I-C-U cases are in Saskatoon.

Add in 79 recoveries and the active case count for COVID-19 in Saskatchewan has jumped above three-thousand for the first time, at 3,012, just as the total reported cases of the virus in the province eclipsed seven-thousand, at 7,047. There have been 3,998 recoveries since the pandemic was declared in mid-March.

For the third straight day, Regina and area was the zone with the most new COVID-19 cases in Saskatchewan at 69, followed by Saskatoon with 37. The North Central zone was the only other one to register double-digit cases with 10 while 46 cases were spread among nine other zones with two remaining cases awaiting residence information. Only the Central West zone didn’t have a new case of the novel coronavirus Wednesday.

Of the 7,047 cases in the province:

• 460 cases are travelers;
• 3,195 are community contacts (including mass gatherings);
• 1,473 have no known exposures; and
• 1,919 are under investigation by local public health.

Overall in Saskatchewan to date:

• 216 cases are healthcare workers; however, the source of the infections may not be related to healthcare in all instances.
• 1,494 cases involve people 19 years of age and under, while the remainder are adults.
• 2,490 cases are in the 20-39 age range; 1,883 are in the 40-59 age range; 929 are in the 60-79 age range; and 246 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.
• 37 deaths related to COVID-19 have been reported to date.

Of 7,047 confirmed cases:

• 2,042 cases are from the Saskatoon area
• 1,478 cases are from the north area (512 north west, 690 north central, 276 north east)
• 1,164 cases are from the Regina area
• 951 cases are from the south area (349 south west, 371 south central, 231 south east)
• 815 cases are from the far north area (554 far north west, 75 far north central, 186 far north east)
• 566 cases are from the central area (258 central west, 308 central east)
• 31 cases have pending residence information

To date, 326,871 COVID-19 tests have been processed Saskatchewan. As of November 23, 2020 when other provincial and national numbers were available, Saskatchewan’s per capita rate was 211,426 people tested per million population. The national rate was 293,363 people tested per million population.

On Tuesday, 2,811 COVID-19 tests were processed in Saskatchewan.

Cases in Long-Term and Personal Care Homes

Positive COVID-19 cases in long-term and personal care homes are now available at www.saskatchewan.ca/covid19-carehomes.