The Ministry of Health is reporting no new deaths related to COVID-19 on Thursday.  While new cases outnumbered recoveries 165 to 153, the province also reported an additional 1493 doses of vaccines were administered.  Vaccine doses are now up to 95,879.  Currently there are 1395 active cases in Saskatchewan, the seven day new case average is at 139 and there are 137 people in hospital with 27 in intensive care.

Since the pandemic began 30,193 cases have been reported and 28,397 people have recovered.

Thursday’s COVID-19 numbers:

Vaccines

The 1,493 doses of COVID-19 vaccine reported today were administered in the following regions: North West (6), North Central (347), Saskatoon (432), Central East (33), Regina (665) and South East (10).

As of March 11, fifty-six (56) per cent of long-term care homes across Saskatchewan have now received their first and second doses of the COVID-19 vaccine and are now fully vaccinated.   Forty-five (45) per cent of personal care homes (PCHs) have now received both their first and second doses.

New Cases

The new cases are located in the Far North West (3), Far North Central (1), Far North East (24), North West (19), North Central (12), North East (7), Saskatoon (24), Central West (1), Central East (9), Regina (51), South West (4), South Central (4) and South East (6) zones.  Eleven cases have been reassigned to the Far North East (3), North West (1), North Central (6) and Regina (1) zones.  One (1) case was found to be an out-of-province resident and removed from the counts.

Hospitalizations

One hundred and ten (110) people are receiving inpatient care: Far North West (2), Far North East (1), North West (12), North Central (9), Saskatoon (43), Central East (5), Regina (36) and South East (2).  Twenty-seven (27) people are in intensive care: North West (1), North Central (1), Saskatoon (11), Central East (2) and Regina (12).

To date, 602,992 COVID-19 tests have been processed in Saskatchewan.  As of March 9, 2021, when other provincial and national numbers were available, Saskatchewan’s per capita rate was 506,352 tests performed per million population.  The national rate was 669,084 tests performed per million population.

The seven-day average of daily new cases is 139 (11.3 new cases per 100,000), the lowest seven-day average since November 13.  A chart comparing today’s average to data collected over the past several months is available on the Government of Saskatchewan website.

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, the per capita testing rate and current numbers of variants of concern can be found on the Government of Saskatchewan website.

Interrupt COVID-19 Transmission in Regina

With an increase of community transmission of variants of concern in Regina, public health officials are asking all those who live and work in Regina to re-commit to best prevention practices to protect against COVID-19.

• Wear your mask in all public places
• Maintain physical distancing
• If you are able to work from home, work from home at this time
• Wash your hands frequently
• Avoid all unnecessary travel

Many of Regina’s outbreaks are a result of people of going to work and public places while symptomatic.  If you have any symptoms, stay home and arrange for a COVID-19 test.

Enforcing Public Health Measures

Enforcement of public health orders is permitted under The Public Health Act, 1994.  Public health inspectors will be supported in their efforts to ticket violators to ensure that businesses and events are brought into compliance as quickly as possible, in addition to the enforcement efforts that have been undertaken by police agencies throughout the province.

For more information on the current public health measures or to see the Public Health Order, visit www.saskatchewan.ca/covid19-measures.

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.