Two weeks after the last set of restrictions set out by the Government of Saskatchewan, there was a lot of positives in Friday’s COVID-19 update from the Ministry of Health. There were no deaths, fewer new cases than the seven-day average (see graph below), fewer people hospitalized, fewer infections being treated in I-C-U and more recoveries than newer cases meaning a drop in active cases in the province.

There were no deaths due to the novel coronavirus in Saskatchewan for the first time in six days. There were 387 recoveries as opposed to 246 new cases of COVID-19, dropping the active case count in the province to 4,547. Of those active cases, 138 are in hospital with 27 people in an I-C-U. Overall, Saskatchewan has had 11,475 reported cases of the virus with 75 deaths and 6,853 people having recovered.

Of Friday’s 246 new cases of COVID-19, 65 are from Saskatoon, 50 from Regina, 34 from the North Central zone, 24 from North West, 19 from Far North West, 14 from South East, 13 from Far North East, nine from North East, seven from South Central, six from Central East, three from Central West and one new case from each of the Far North Central and South West zones.

Of the 11,475 cases in the province:

• 533 cases are travelers;
• 5,015 are community contacts (including mass gatherings);
• 2,676 have no known exposures; and
• 3,251 are under investigation by local public health.

Overall in Saskatchewan to date:

• 397 cases are healthcare workers; however, the source of the infections may not be related to healthcare in all instances.
• 2,402 cases involve people 19 years of age and under, while the remainder are adults.
• 4,037 cases are in the 20-39 age range; 3,013 are in the 40-59 age range; 1,529 are in the 60-79 age range; and 489 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.
• 75 deaths related to COVID-19 have been reported to date.

Of 11,475 confirmed cases:

• 3,436 cases are from the Saskatoon area
• 2,417 cases are from the north area (881 north west, 1,165 north central, 371 north east)
• 2,280 cases are from the Regina area
• 1,371 cases are from the south area (534 south west, 466 south central, 371 south east)
• 1,209 cases are from the far north area (746 far north west, 89 far north central, 374 far north east)
• 730 cases are from the central area (312 central west, 418 central east)
• 32 cases have pending residence information

To date, 379,378 COVID-19 tests have been processed in Saskatchewan. As of December 9, 2020 when other provincial and national numbers were available, Saskatchewan’s per capita rate was 236,087 people tested per million population. The national rate was 327,695 people tested per million population.

On Thursday, 3,497 COVID-19 tests were processed in Saskatchewan.