The number of deaths crept down for a second straight day, but there were four more fatalities due to COVID-19 in Thursday’s update from the Ministry of Health. Two people in their 80s from Regina and the South Central zone, an individual in their 50s from the North East and a young person in their 30s from the North Central zone are the latest to have perished, meaning Saskatchewan’s death toll is up to 75 since the pandemic was declared in mid-March…15 in the last three days.

As for numbers of novel coronavirus cases, the provincial total shot up above 11-thousand Thursday as 324 new cases were reported, along with 345 people having recovered, thus reducing the active cases of COVID-19 in Saskatchewan to 4,682 from Wednesday’s 4,707 figure. Hospitalized infections went down to 138, but the number of people being treated in I-C-U is up to a provincial high of 31. Of the 324 new cases Thursday, 109 are from Saskatoon, 53 from Regina, 47 from the North West zone, 37 from the North Central, 15 from each of the Far North West, Far North East and South West zones with four new cases pending residence information. All 13 zones reported at least two new cases Thursday. Overall, since the pandemic was declared, Saskatchewan has 11,223 reported cases of COVID-19. The seven-day average of new cases is 283 with a graph of the day-to-day progression below…

Of the 11,223 cases in the province:

• 526 cases are travelers;
• 4,792 are community contacts (including mass gatherings);
• 2,567 have no known exposures; and
• 3,338 are under investigation by local public health.

Overall in Saskatchewan to date:

• 376 cases are healthcare workers; however, the source of the infections may not be related to healthcare in all instances.
• 2,344 cases involve people 19 years of age and under, while the remainder are adults.
• 3,946 cases are in the 20-39 age range; 2,952 are in the 40-59 age range; 1,500 are in the 60-79 age range; and 476 are in the 80-plus range. Confirmation of age is pending for five cases.
• 50 per cent of the cases are female and 50 per cent are male.
• 75 deaths related to COVID-19 have been reported to date.

Of 11,223 confirmed cases:

• 3,369 cases are from the Saskatoon area
• 2,348 cases are from the north area (856 north west, 1,130 north central, 362 north east)
• 2,230 cases are from the Regina area
• 1,349 cases are from the south area (533 south west, 459 south central, 357 south east)
• 1,172 cases are from the far north area (724 far north west, 88 far north central, 360 far north east)
• 721 cases are from the central area (309 central west, 412 central east)
• 34 cases have pending residence information

To date, 375,881 COVID-19 tests have been processed in Saskatchewan. As of December 8, 2020 when other provincial and national numbers were available, Saskatchewan’s per capita rate was 234,749 people tested per million population. The national rate was 325,263 people tested per million population.

on Wednesday, 3,476 COVID-19 tests were processed in Saskatchewan.

Weekly Reporting of Testing Numbers and Cases for Youth

The trends of COVID-19 cases in school-aged children are being monitored. The weekly report of cases and testing numbers for children aged 0-19, including data by age and positivity rates, has been posted at www.saskatchewan.ca/COVID19-Safe-Schools-Plan.