Not surprisingly, Saskatchewan eclipsed 200 deaths due to COVID-19 with five new fatalities included in Tuesday’s update from the Ministry of Health. A person in their 30s from the South West zones, two people in their 70s…one from each of the Far North West and North West zones…and two Regina residents in their 80s upped the provincial death toll to 204.

       In addition, new cases of the novel coronavirus were down almost one-half Tuesday from Monday…but so were the number of tests processed in Saskatchewan. There are 248 new cases from 1,995 tests…a positive test rate of just over 12 per cent. There were, also, 226 new recoveries from COVID-19 in Tuesday’s update, leaving 3,752 active cases of the virus in the province…191 people under hospital care with 29 in an I-C-U. In total, there have been 18,770 cases of COVID-19 in Saskatchewan with 14,814 people having recovered.

       As for vaccinations, 903 doses were administered between Monday’s update and Tuesday’s for a total of 9,880 doses. The next shipment of 6,825 Pfizer doses was expected to arrive in Saskatoon Tuesday and vaccination will continue among priority long term care and personal care home residents and staff. The next Moderna shipment of 5,400 doses is expected to arrive in Saskatchewan on Thursday.

The new cases are located in the Far North West (11), Far North Central (2), Far North East (20), North West (30), North Central (26), North East (5), Saskatoon (53), Central West (2), Central East (10), Regina (37), South West (2), South Central (8) and South East (11) zones and 31 new cases have pending residence information.

Twenty-seven cases with pending residence information were assigned to Far North West (6); Far North East (9); North West (2) and North Central (10) zones.

One hundred and ninety-one people are in hospital.  One hundred and sixty-two people are receiving inpatient care: Far North East (1), Far North Central (1), North West (10), North Central (34), North East (12), Saskatoon (42), Central East (9), Regina (42), South Central (1) and South East (10).  Twenty-nine people are in intensive care: North West (1), North Central (4), Saskatoon (14), Central East (1), and Regina (9).

To date, 456,045 COVID-19 tests have been processed in Saskatchewan.  As of January 9, 2021 when other provincial and national numbers were available, Saskatchewan’s per capita rate was 267,709 people tested per million population.  The national rate was 389,637 people tested per million population.

Further statistics on the total number of cases among healthcare workers, breakdowns of total cases by source of infection, age, sex and region, total tests to date and the per capita testing rate can be found on the Government of Saskatchewan website. Please visit www.saskatchewan.ca/government/health-care-administration-and-provider-resources/treatment-procedures-and-guidelines/emerging-public-health-issues/2019-novel-coronavirus/cases-and-risk-of-covid-19-in-saskatchewan.

The seven-day average of daily new cases is 321 (26.5 new cases per 100,000 population) and is now available on the Government of Saskatchewan website. This chart compares today’s average to data collected over the past several months. Please visit https://dashboard.saskatchewan.ca/health-wellness/covid-19/seven-day-average-of-new-covid-cases.

On January 11, 903 vaccine doses were administered in Regina (219), Saskatoon (81), Prince Albert (210), the Far North West (88), the Far North Central (64), the Far North East (122) and North East (119) zones.

This brings the totals to 2,069 doses and 1,449 second doses of Pfizer in the Regina pilot program; 2,928 Pfizer doses in Saskatoon; 824 Pfizer doses in Prince Albert; 684 Moderna doses in the Far North West zone; 226 Moderna doses in the Far North Central zone; 1,193 Moderna doses in the Far North East zone; and 507 Moderna doses in the North East zone.