Saskatchewan had its highest day of administered doses of COVID-19 vaccine Friday while Saturday’s update from the Ministry of Health reported less than 300 new cases and a positive rate of less than 10% of novel coronavirus from processed tests.

       There were 2,857 doses administered in seven different zones Friday for a total of 16,927 in the province. As for positive cases of COVID-19, there were 270 new cases from 3,071 processed tests for a total of 19,985 reported cases of the virus in Saskatchewan. However, there were 235 new recoveries for a provincial total of 15,730, leaving 4,043 active cases of COVID-19 in Saskatchewan…199 of those infections in hospital with 35 individuals in an I-C-U. In addition, there were two new deaths from the novel coronavirus in Saturday’s update…both from Regina, one person in their 60s and the other in their 80s…for a provincial death toll of 212.

       Only the Central West and South West zones didn’t have a report of a new case Saturday while 68 of the 270 new cases are from Saskatoon, 49 from the North West zone, 47 from Regina, seven new cases require residence information while the remaining 99 new cases are spread out among the other eight zones.

There were 2,857 doses of COVID-19 vaccine administered yesterday in Saskatchewan – the highest one-day total to date.  This brings the total number of vaccines administered in the province to 16,927.

The doses were administered in the following zones: Regina (267), Saskatoon (893), Prince Albert (857), Far North West (129), North East (426) and South East (285).  The Far North Central reported an additional 53 vaccines administered on January 14, not previously reported.  No data for January 15 is available at this time.

For a listing of first and second doses in Saskatchewan administered by geographic zone, visit https://www.saskatchewan.ca/covid19-vaccine-update.

Due to work to expand its European manufacturing facility, production of the Pfizer vaccine will be impacted for a few weeks.  Pfizer is temporarily reducing deliveries, potentially by half, to all countries receiving vaccine manufactured at this facility, including Canada.  In Saskatchewan, vaccines will continue to be administered as received according to priority sequence.

A shipment of 4,900 doses of Moderna vaccine arrived yesterday and distribution is underway to the Central and South East zones. Due to poor weather conditions yesterday, the shipment flying to the Far North East did not arrive until this morning.  Clinics are expected to begin today and continue through the weekend.

The Saskatchewan Health Authority’s public service announcements on clinics can be found at www.saskhealthauthority.ca/news/Pages/Home.aspx.

Daily COVID-19 Statistics

There are 270 new cases of COVID-19 to report in Saskatchewan on January 16, 2021, bringing the provincial total to date to 19,985 cases.

Two Saskatchewan residents who tested positive for COVID-19 have died.  One reported death was in the 60-69 age group and one in the 80+ age group.  Both were from the Regina zone.

The new cases are located in the Far North West (10), Far North Central (1), Far North East (15), North West (49), North Central (23), North East (13), Saskatoon (68), Central East (5), Regina (47), South Central (6) and South East (26) zones and seven (7) new cases have pending residence information.

Twelve cases with pending residence information were assigned to the Far North West (1); Far North East (2); North Central (6); North West (1); Saskatoon (1) and South West (1) zones.

One hundred and ninety-nine people are in hospital.  One hundred and sixty-four people are receiving inpatient care: Far North West (3), Far North Central (1), Far North East (1), North West (10), North Central (30), North East (10), Saskatoon (55), Central West (1), Central East (7), Regina (34), South West (1), South Central (1) and South East (10).  Thirty-five people are in intensive care: North West (2), North Central (5), Saskatoon (17), Central East (1), Regina (9) and South Central (1).

To date, 468,461 COVID-19 tests have been processed in Saskatchewan.  As of January 14, 2021 when other provincial and national numbers were available, Saskatchewan’s per capita rate was 271,772 people tested per million population.  The national rate was 436,214 people tested per million population.

Further statistics on the total number of cases among healthcare workers, breakdowns of total cases by source of infection, age, sex and region, total tests to date and the per capita testing rate can be found on the Government of Saskatchewan website.  Please visit www.saskatchewan.ca/government/health-care-administration-and-provider-resources/treatment-procedures-and-guidelines/emerging-public-health-issues/2019-novel-coronavirus/cases-and-risk-of-covid-19-in-saskatchewan.

The seven-day average of daily new cases is 311 (25.7 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.