For the second straight day, and third time in four days, there were no deaths reported in Saskatchewan because of COVID-19. The provincial death toll remains at 385 while the active case count of the novel coronavirus rose slightly to 1,551 as Monday’s update from the Ministry of Health had 154 new cases of COVID-19 as opposed to 146 new recoveries. Of the 1,551 active cases in Saskatchewan, 151 individuals are hospitalized while 21 of those infections are being treated in an I-C-U. The seven-day average for new cases of the virus in the province dropped marginally Monday to 143.

In addition, the Roy Romanow Provincial Laboratory has completed the validation process in order to support whole genome sequencing. This test determines that a positive COVID-19 case is a variant of concern, as well as what type of variant. Starting immediately, the R-R-P-L has the capacity to test up to 192 samples per week. Plus, the province will continue to send up to 120 samples per week to the National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg to ensure a larger sample size.

Otherwise, a total of 356 doses of vaccine were administered Sunday in the North West and North Central zones, bringing Saskatchewan’s total vaccine count to just under 80,000.

Daily COVID-19 Statistics

There are 154 new cases of COVID-19 to report in Saskatchewan on March 1, bringing the provincial total to 28,801 cases.

No additional Saskatchewan residents who tested positive for COVID-19 have died.

The new cases are located in the Far North West (12), Far North Central (3), Far North East (5), North West (14), North Central (10), North East (2), Saskatoon (33), Central West (1), Central East (14), Regina (53) and South East (2) zones.  Five cases are pending residence information.  Two cases with pending residence information were assigned to the North Central zone.

There are a total of 26,865 recoveries and 1,551 cases are considered active.

One hundred and fifty-one (151) people are in hospital.  One hundred and thirty (130) people are receiving inpatient care: Far North West (4), Far North East (2), North West (12), North Central (14), North East (1), Saskatoon (49), Central West (1), Central East (7), Regina (33), South Central (3) and South East (4).  Twenty-one people are in intensive care: North West (1), Saskatoon (11) and Regina (9).

There were 1,741 COVID-19 tests processed in Saskatchewan on February 28, 2021.

To date, 578,066 COVID-19 tests have been processed in Saskatchewan.  As of February 27, 2021, when other provincial and national numbers were available, Saskatchewan’s per capita rate was 486,243 tests performed per million population.  The national rate was 642,693 tests performed per million population.

The seven-day average of daily new cases is 143 (11.6 new cases per 100,000), the lowest seven-day average since early November.  A chart comparing today’s average to data collected over the past several months is available on the Government of Saskatchewan website.  Please visit https://dashboard.saskatchewan.ca/health-wellness/covid-19/seven-day-average-of-new-covid-cases.

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.

Variant of Concern Testing at RRPL

The Roy Romanow Provincial Laboratory (RRPL) has completed the validation process in order to support whole genome sequencing.  This test determines that a positive COVID-19 case is a variant of concern, as well as what type of variant.  Starting immediately, the RRPL has the capacity to test up to 192 samples per week.

In order to monitor for variants of concern, the RRPL will continue to focus whole genome sequencing testing on COVID positive results linked to international travel, declared outbreaks and cases of unexpected severe illness, as well as a random sampling of confirmed cases.

The province will continue to send up to 120 samples per week to the National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg to ensure a larger sample size.

Vaccine Delivery

There were 386 COVID-19 vaccine doses administered Sunday in Saskatchewan, bringing the total number of vaccines administered in the province to 79,289.

The 356 doses were administered in the North West (124) and North Central (262) zones.  Data has been updated to include an additional 677 doses administered in the Far North East (22), North West (212), Central East (120) and South East (323) zones on February 25-27.

For a listing of first and second doses in Saskatchewan administered by geographic zone, visit https://www.saskatchewan.ca/covid19-vaccine-update.