It’s been a busy week for Saskatchewan Health Authority public health inspectors. Friday’s update from the Ministry of Health said seven individual tickets of $2,800 each were issued for failure to abide by public health orders. The names of the individuals tickets were not disclosed.

       Meanwhile, the province has 224 people in hospital because of COVID-19, according to Friday’s update…the most at any time since the pandemic was declared 11 months ago. Of those 224 hospitalized infections, 28 individuals are in an I-C-U. Otherwise, there were three deaths reported Friday due to the novel coronavirus along with 269 new cases and 229 new recoveries, leaving 2,299 active cases in Saskatchewan. A person in their 60s from the North East zone, another in their 70s from the Far North West and a person in the 80-plus age bracket from the North Central zone accounted for the latest fatalities, upping the provincial death tally to 332 because of COVID-19.

       Plus, 2,099 doses of Pfizer vaccine were administered over seven different zones on Thursday. The Moderna shipment of 6,000 doses has arrived in Saskatchewan and will be delivered over the next day or so while two shipments of 11,700 doses each of Pfizer vaccine are expected to arrive in the province on March 1st and March 8th.

There were 2,099 COVID-19 vaccine doses administered Thursday in Saskatchewan, bringing the total number of vaccines administered in the province to 38,710.  With 5,850 doses having arrived in the province this week and the overages due to efficiencies in drawing extra doses from vials of vaccine received, 100 per cent of the doses received have been administered to date.  With this allotment, Phase One vaccinations will continue in Prince Albert, Saskatoon, Yorkton and North Battleford.

The 2,099 doses were administered in the following zones: Far North Central (10), Far North East (44), North Central (428), North West (573), Central East (116), South East (432) and Saskatoon (496).  Back-dated corrections submitted to February 2 have realized an additional 84 doses of vaccine administered in the Central East zone.

Saskatchewan’s Moderna shipment of 6,000 doses has arrived at Roy Romanow Provincial Laboratory. Ground transportation for the doses going to the South East, North East, Central West, and Far North West will begin late Friday afternoon.  Air transportation for the Far North Central and Far North East will begin on Saturday, February 6.

Saskatchewan is scheduled to receive 11,700 Pfizer doses the week of March 1 and 11,700 doses on the week of March 8.

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

Daily COVID-19 Statistics

There are 269 new cases of COVID-19 to report in Saskatchewan on February 5, bringing the provincial total to date to 24,946 cases.

Three Saskatchewan residents who tested positive for COVID-19 have died.  One death was reported in the 60-69 age group from the North East; one death in the 70-79 age group from the Far North West; and one death in the 80+ age group from the North Central zone.

The new cases are located in the Far North West (19), Far North Central (5), Far North East (15), North West (30), North Central (21), North East (22), Saskatoon (66), Central West (6), Central East (10), Regina (41), South West (1), South Central (4) and South East (22) zones, and seven (7) cases with pending residence information.

Nine cases with pending resident information were assigned to the Far North East (6), North West (2) and Saskatoon (1) zones. Three cases were found to be duplicates and removed from the North West (1), Regina (1) and South East (1) zones.

A total of 22,315 individuals have recovered and 2,299 cases are considered active.

Two hundred and twenty-four (224) people are in hospital.  One hundred and ninety-six (196) people are receiving inpatient care: Far North West (5), Far North East (1), North West (26), North Central (26), North East (3), Saskatoon (66), Central West (1), Central East (11), Regina (51), South Central (1) and South East (5).  Twenty-eight (28) people are in intensive care: North West (1), North Central (1), Saskatoon (11), Central East (3), South West (1) and Regina (11). Note that total hospitalizations (in-patient and ICU) include both infectious and non-infectious COVID-19 cases receiving care.

There were 3,317 COVID-19 tests processed in Saskatchewan on February 4, 2021.

To date, 521,073 COVID-19 tests have been processed in Saskatchewan.  As of February 3, 2021, when other provincial and national numbers were available, Saskatchewan’s per capita rate was 439,268 tests performed per million population.  The national rate was 576,787 tests performed 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 225 (18.4 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.

Enforcing Public Health Measures

Enforcement of public health orders is permitted under The Public Health Act, 1994.  Public health inspectors will be supported in their efforts to ticket violators quickly to ensure that businesses and events are brought into compliance as quickly as possible, in addition to the enforcement efforts that have been undertaken by police agencies throughout the province.

The week of February 1, Saskatchewan Health Authority public health inspectors issued seven individual tickets for failure to abide by public health orders.  Each of these tickets was for $2,800.  Note that under the Health Information and Privacy Act, the Ministry of Health cannot disclose the names of individuals who have received fines.

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