For the first time in 12 days, individuals recovering from COVID-19 out-numbered new cases of the novel coronavirus in Saskatchewan. However, there were four more deaths due to COVID-19 reported in Tuesday’s update from the Ministry of Health…three of the deaths from the Saskatoon area. One of the Saskatoon fatalities was a person aged between 60 and 79 years old. The remaining three deaths were all people in their 80s…two from Saskatoon and one from the South region. The death toll in the province is now up to 51 people because of COVID-19.

Tuesday’s update had 237 people recovering from the virus in Saskatchewan with 181 new cases arising from 2,431 processed tests on Monday. That leaves the number of active cases of COVID-19 in the province at 3,819…21 of those in hospital, with 13 in Saskatoon. Regina had 67 of today’s 181 new cases with 41 in Saskatoon and six new cases pending residence information. With no new cases, once again, reported from the Far North Central zone, that means 67 remaining new cases were spread out amongst 10 other zones. Despite the drop in new cases Tuesday, the seven-day average crept up slightly to 264 from 263 on Monday. Since the pandemic was declared in mid-March, the number of reported COVID-19 infections is at 8,745.

Of the 8,745 cases in the province:

• 479 cases are travelers;
• 3,717 are community contacts (including mass gatherings);
• 1,914 have no known exposures; and
• 2,635 are under investigation by local public health.

Overall in Saskatchewan to date:

• 261 cases are healthcare workers; however, the source of the infections may not be related to healthcare in all instances.
• 1,807 cases involve people 19 years of age and under, while the remainder are adults.
• 3,112 cases are in the 20-39 age range; 2,337 are in the 40-59 age range; 1,156 are in the 60-79 age range; and 328 are in the 80-plus range. Confirmation of age is pending for five cases.
• 50 per cent of the cases are female and 50 per cent are male.
• 51 deaths related to COVID-19 have been reported to date.

Of 8,745 confirmed cases:

• 2,644 cases are from the Saskatoon area
• 1,763 cases are from the north area (635 north west, 821 north central, 307 north east)
• 1,596 cases are from the Regina area
• 1,138 cases are from the south area (434 south west, 411 south central, 293 south east)
• 940 cases are from the far north area (612 far north west, 80 far north central, 248 far north east)
• 633 cases are from the central area (275 central west, 358 central east)
• 31 cases have pending residence information

To date, 347,918 COVID-19 tests have been processed in Saskatchewan. As of November 29, 2020 when other provincial and national numbers were available, Saskatchewan’s per capita rate was 222,074 people tested per million population. The national rate was 305,290 people tested per million population.

On Monday, 2,431 COVID-19 tests were processed in Saskatchewan.