Monday’s COVID-19 update from the Ministry of Health trumpeted the fact that 81% of Saskatchewan long-term care home residents have received one dose of vaccine and that 43% have received both shots and are fully vaccinated as a result. The report added that 920 doses were administered Sunday in four different ones.

       The news came on a day when no new deaths due to the novel coronavirus were reported in the province. For a third straight day, the new cases were more than the seven-day average…177 as opposed to the average now at 158. However, after three straight days of a rise, the active case count in Saskatchewan went down slightly Monday as 195 individuals were reported as having recovered from COVID-19, leaving 1,652 active cases. Of those, 177 people are in hospital with 15 hospitalized infections receiving treatment in an I-C-U.

Vaccine Delivery

Eighty-one (81) per cent of residents in long-term care homes across Saskatchewan have now received one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.  Forty-three (43) per cent have received both their first and second dose and are now fully vaccinated.

“Our health care workers are doing an excellent job of administering vaccines quickly, safely and efficiently in long-term care facilities across the province,” Health Minister Paul Merriman said.  “The only thing slowing them down is the shortage of vaccines from the federal government.

“When we get enough doses, we will be able to quickly finish vaccinating all the residents and staff in our long-term care homes.  We look forward to having our seniors in long-term care fully vaccinated as soon as possible so they are protected from the threat of COVID-19.”

There were 920 COVID-19 vaccine doses administered yesterday in Saskatchewan, bringing the total number of vaccines administered in the province to 61,730.

The 920 doses were administered in the Saskatoon (499), North West (43), Central East (187), and South Central (191) zones.  The South Central (63) and Regina (4) zones reported an additional 67 doses administered February 20.

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

Note that we remain in Phase One of vaccine delivery, targeting residents and staff of long-term and personal-care homes, identified health care providers, residents 70 years and older and residents aged 50 and older in remote/Northern Saskatchewan.  Eligible populations will be contacted directly to receive their vaccinations.  Registration for appointments for Phase Two sequenced populations will be available when Phase Two commences.  Please do not contact HealthLine 811 to register for vaccinations at this time.  Notification will be provided when the registration system is available.

Daily COVID-19 Statistics

There are 177 new cases of COVID-19 to report in Saskatchewan on February 22, bringing the provincial total to 27,797 cases.

The new cases are located in the Far North West (15), Far North Central (6), Far North East (5), North West (20), North Central (7), North East (7), Saskatoon (37), Central West (4), Central East (11), Regina (48), South West (1), South Central (5) and South East (3) zones and eight (8) cases have pending residence information.  Two cases with pending residence information were assigned to the North West zone.

There are a total of 25,773 recoveries and 1,652 cases are considered active.

One hundred and seventy-seven (177) people are in hospital.  One hundred and sixty-two (162) people are receiving inpatient care: Far North West (8), Far North Central (2), Far North East (2), North West (15), North Central (17), North East (2), Saskatoon (58), Central West (1), Central East (8), Regina (42), South Central (2) and South East (5).  Fifteen (15) people are in intensive care: North West (1), North Central (1), Saskatoon (8), Central East (1), and Regina (4).

There were 2,105 COVID-19 tests processed in Saskatchewan on February 21, 2021.

Please note that, like most categories of statistics reported, daily testing numbers include those pending by location as noted in the footnotes daily on the Tests By Region page in the dashboard.  Total testing numbers will include tests that are still pending by location; those numbers will not appear in the regional statistics until they are assigned.

To date, 561,183 COVID-19 tests have been processed in Saskatchewan.  As of February 20, 2021, when other provincial and national numbers were available, Saskatchewan’s per capita rate was 471,694 tests performed per million population.  The national rate was 623,697 tests performed per million population.

The seven-day average of daily new cases is 158 (12.9 new cases per 100,000).  A chart comparing today’s average to data collected over the past several months is available on the Government of Saskatchewan website.  Please visit https://dashboard.saskatchewan.ca/health-wellness/covid-19/seven-day-average-of-new-covid-cases.

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.