Three more Saskatchewan people who tested positive for COVID-19 have died, and all three are from the Saskatoon area.
One was in their thirties, another in their sixties and the third was in the 80 and over age group.
The province is also reporting 147 new cases of the virus for a total to date of 15,160.
Almost 30 per cent of the new cases are from the Regina area with 44, followed by 25 in the far northeast, 17 in the southeast, 13 in the Saskatoon zone, ten in the north central area, nine in the northwest, seven in central east, five in the northeast, four in the far northwest, three in south central and two in the southwest.
Eight new cases are pending residence information.

There have been 378 recoveries for a total of 12,057 and there are 151 people in the hospital, with 32 in intensive care.
As of December 29, 2,942 doses of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine have been provided to health care workers in Regina as part of the initial pilot and in Saskatoon as part of Phase 1.

Of the 15,160 cases in the province:

626 cases are travelers;
7,431 are community contacts (including mass gatherings);
3,529 have no known exposures; and
3,574 are under investigation by local public health.
Overall in Saskatchewan to date:

710 cases are healthcare workers; however, the source of the infections may not be related to healthcare in all instances.
3,193 cases involve people 19 years of age and under, while the remainder are adults.
5,431 cases are in the 20-39 age range; 3,886 are in the 40-59 age range; 1,972 are in the 60-79 age range; and 673 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.
154 deaths related to COVID-19 have been reported to date.
Of 15,160 confirmed cases:

4,264 cases are from the Saskatoon area
3,661 cases are from the north area (1,387 north west, 1,770 north central, 504 north east)
2,968 cases are from the Regina area
1,683 cases are from the far north (900 far north west, 106 far north central, 677 far north east)
1,570 cases are from the south (559 south west, 535 south central, 476 south east)
927 cases are from the central area (339 central west, 588 central east)
87 cases have pending residence information

To date, 424,533 COVID-19 tests have been processed in Saskatchewan. As of December 28, 2020 when other provincial and national numbers were available, Saskatchewan’s per capita rate was 256,133 people tested per million population. The national rate was 364,733 people tested per million population.

Yesterday, 1,475 COVID-19 tests were processed in Saskatchewan.

The seven-day average of daily new cases is 152 (12.5 new cases per 100,000 population) and is now available on the Government of Saskatchewan website. This chart compares today’s average to data collected over the past several months. Please visit https://dashboard.saskatchewan.ca/health-wellness/covid-19/seven-day-average-of-new-covid-cases.

Expansion to Drive-thru Testing Sites:

The Saskatchewan Health Authority is expanding drive-thru testing hours in Regina and Saskatoon. Effective January 2, the Saskatoon site will be open seven days a week, while the Regina site will have expanded hours, opening each day at 11:30 a.m. More information can be found by clicking here.

Please be aware that the COVID-19 drive-thru testing sites have modified their hours for the holiday season. Please check the Government of Saskatchewan website for dates and times for drive-thru testing between now and January 2: Click here for more information.

Case Information Posting through New Year’s:

The daily provincial case information, including news release and dashboard, will be posted through December 31, but an update will not be available January 1. Case information from January 1 will be included in the next, scheduled information posting on January 2.

Public Health Measures:

For more information on the current public health measures or to see the Public Health Order, visit www.saskatchewan.ca/covid19-measures.

General COVID-19 Information:

General public inquiries may be directed to COVID19@health.gov.sk.ca.