Another person who tested positive for COVID-19 has died, for a total now of 410 Saskatchewan residents. The individual was in the eighty and over category and was from the northwest zone. The number of new cases reported on Wednesday is 87, for a provincial total of 30,970.
The Saskatchewan Health Authority is encouraging everyone to continue to be vigilant to protect against COVID-19, with two of the variants of concern confirmed in this province. The SHA advises to get tested if you have symptoms and get immunized when you are eligible. Evidence indicates these variants are 70 per cent more transmissible, and those with underlying health conditions and seniors continue to be at greatest risk of severe illness and death.
The new cases are located in the Far North West (2), Far North East (5), North West (5), North Central (1), North East (8), Saskatoon (20), Central East (7), Regina (27), South West (1), South Central (2) and South East (5) zones. Four (4) new cases are pending residence information. Six (6) cases with pending residence information were assigned to the North Central (5) and Regina (1) zones.
There are a total of 29,296 recoveries and 1,264 cases are considered active.
One hundred thirty-nine (139) people are in hospital. One hundred and eight (108) people are receiving inpatient care: Far North West (2), Far North East (1), North West (6), North Central (5), Saskatoon (42), Central East (7), Regina (42), South West (1), South Central (1) and South East (1). Thirty-one (31) people are in intensive care: North West (1), Saskatoon (15), Central East (3), Regina (11) and South Central (1).
The seven-day average of daily new cases is 135 (11.0 new cases per 100,000). A chart comparing today’s average to data collected over the past several months is available on the Government of Saskatchewan website.
There were 2,597 COVID-19 tests processed in Saskatchewan on March 16, 2021. To date, 617,664 COVID-19 tests have been processed in Saskatchewan. As of March 15, 2021, when other provincial and national numbers were available, Saskatchewan’s per capita rate was 518,962 tests performed per million population. The national rate was 685,923 tests performed per million population.
Through a partnership with the SHA and CanCOGeN, funding of more than $333,000 has been provided for additional equipment, and specimen and reagent storage at the Roy Romanow Provincial Laboratory (RRPL). This enabled the RRPL to add additional testing capacity for variants of concern (VOC).
As of March 17, there are no new confirmed variants of concern (VOC) cases to report. There are 135 confirmed variants of concern cases in Saskatchewan: 129 B1.1.1.7 (UK) and six B1.351 (SA). One previously reported B1.1.1.7 (UK) variant case was identified as a duplicate and removed. The Regina zone accounts for 121 (or 90 per cent) of the confirmed VOC cases reported in Saskatchewan. In addition to the confirmed cases, there are currently 313 presumptive VOC cases reported in the Far North East (1), Saskatoon (6), Central East (5), Regina (264), South Central (23) and South East (14) zones.
