A Saskatoon resident in their 80s is the 33rd person in Saskatchewan to have died after testing positive for COVID-19. Friday’s update from the Ministry of Health also put the total reported cases of the novel coronavirus over 5,800 with more than 2,100 of those said to be active in the province.

There were 153 new cases of COVID-19 Friday, 42 of them from Saskatoon, 20 of them from the South East zone, 16 from the Far North Central, 14 each from Regina, the North Central and South Central zones and four new cases have pending residence information. The remaining seven zones all had at least one new case reported Friday from the remaining 29.

Hospitalized numbers, due to the virus, went up by two Friday to 85, but the number in intensive care went down to 19 from 21 on Thursday. The provincial I-C-U breakdown has eight in Saskatoon, five in Regina, three in the North Central zone and one from each of the North West, Central East and South West zones. There were 73 recoveries reported in Saskatchewan Friday for a total of 3,626.

Of the 5,804 cases in the province:

• 421 cases are travelers;
• 2,589 are community contacts (including mass gatherings);
• 1,216 have no known exposures; and
• 1,578 are under investigation by local public health.

Overall in Saskatchewan to date:

• 171 cases are healthcare workers; however, the source of the infections may not be related to healthcare in all instances.
• 1,239 cases involve people 19 years of age and under, while the remainder are adults.
• 2,101 cases are in the 20-39 age range; 1,571 are in the 40-59 age range; 720 are in the 60-79 age range; and 168 are in the 80-plus range. Confirmation of age is pending for five cases.
• 51 per cent of the cases are females and 49 per cent are males.
• 33 deaths related to COVID-19 have been reported to date.

Of 5,804 confirmed cases:

• 1,670 cases are from the Saskatoon area
• 1,236 cases are from the north area (413 north west, 580 north central, 243 north east)
• 850 cases are from the Regina area
• 787 cases are from the south area (293 south west, 317 south central, 177 south east)
• 724 cases are from the far north area (512 far north west, 66 far north central, 146 far north east)
• 509 cases are from the central area (228 central west, 281 central east)
• 28 cases have pending residence information

To date, 310,090 COVID-19 tests have been processed Saskatchewan. As of November 18, 2020 when other provincial and national numbers were available, Saskatchewan’s per capita rate was 200,570 people tested per million population. The national rate was 283,838 people tested per million population.

On Thursday, 2,826 COVID-19 tests were processed in Saskatchewan.

COVID-19 Modelling Update

On November 19, Saskatchewan’s Chief Medical Health Officer presented a COVID-19 modelling update, available at https://www.saskatchewan.ca/government/health-care-administration-and-provider-resources/treatment-procedures-and-guidelines/emerging-public-health-issues/2019-novel-coronavirus/latest-updates.