Two Regina residents, one in their 70s and one in their 80s, are the latest casualties due to COVID-19 in Saskatchewan…according to Friday’s update from the Ministry of Health. That brings the provincial death toll to 107. In addition, Friday’s report had 245 new cases…more than the seven-day average, which is now at 230. Add in the fact that 485 individuals are said to have recovered from the novel coronavirus and Saskatchewan’s active case count is down to 3,736…121 of those in hospital with 17 infections being treated in an I-C-U.

       For one of the rare times since the pandemic was declared in mid-March, there were more new cases reported from a zone outside of the province’s two largest cities, as 53 of the 245 new cases are from the North West zone. There were 46 new cases reported in Saskatoon, 42 from Regina, 28 from the Far North East zone, 16 from North Central, 14 from North East, 12 from the Far North West and 10 cases with pending residence informaton. That leaves 24 new cases in six other zones as all 13 had at least one new case in today’s Friday’s update.

Of the 13,077 cases in the province:

• 575 cases are travelers;
• 6,292 are community contacts (including mass gatherings);
• 2,937 have no known exposures; and
• 3,273 are under investigation by local public health.

Overall in Saskatchewan to date:

• 551 cases are healthcare workers; however, the source of the infections may not be related to healthcare in all instances.
• 2,801 cases involve people 19 years of age and under, while the remainder are adults.
• 4,580 cases are in the 20-39 age range; 3,403 are in the 40-59 age range; 1,716 are in the 60-79 age range; and 572 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.
• 107 deaths related to COVID-19 have been reported to date.

Of 13,077 confirmed cases:

• 3,836 cases are from the Saskatoon area
• 2,925 cases are from the north area (1,138 north west, 1,361 north central, 426 north east)
• 2,606 cases are from the Regina area
• 1,471 cases are from the south area (547 south west, 510 south central, 414 south east)
• 1,395 cases are from the far north area (810 far north west, 99 far north central, 486 far north east)
• 797 cases are from the central area (325 central west, 472 central east)
• 47 cases have pending residence information

To date, 399,726 COVID-19 tests have been processed in Saskatchewan.  As of December 16, 2020 when other provincial and national numbers were available, Saskatchewan’s per capita rate was 245,198 people tested per million population.  The national rate was 342,119 people tested per million population.

On Thursday, 3,171 COVID-19 tests were processed in Saskatchewan.

Public Health Measures Effective December 19

For more information on the public health measures that take effect Saturday, December 19, or to see the Public Health Order, visit https://www.saskatchewan.ca/covid19-measures.