Saskatchewan reported 61 new confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus Saturday. The number of active cases now sits at 562 following 48 recoveries. No new deaths were reported Saturday. 101 people are in hospital for the virus after six people have been discharged from health care facilities across the province. 32 of the 101 in hospital are receiving care in an ICU. Saskatoon accounted for 24 of the new infections while Regina reported 16. More information is with our online story.

Below are the highlights posted to the Government of Saskatchewan’s website:

• As of December 18th, there are 61 new confirmed cases of COVID-19, bringing the total to 82,131 reported cases.
• The new cases are located in the Far North West (2), North West (3), North Central (5), North East (2), Saskatoon (24), Central West (1), Central East (3), Regina (16), South Central (1), South East (3), and one (1) new case has pending residence information.
• One (1) case with pending residence information was assigned to the Far North West (from October 15 (1)) zone.
• Two (2) SK residents tested out-of-province were added to the case counts in the Saskatoon (from December 15 (1)), and Regina (from December 13 (1)) zones.
• One (1) repeated test was removed from the case counts in the North West (from October 19 (1)) zone.
• 82,131 cases are confirmed
  • 19,983 cases are from the North area (8,872 North West, 8,261 North Central, 2,850 North East)
  • 19,612 cases are from the Saskatoon area
  • 16,050 cases are from the Regina area
  • 10,348 cases are from the South area (2,201 South West, 3,014 South Central, 5,133 South East)
  • 9,395 cases are from the Far North area (4,418 Far North West, 541 Far North Central, 4,436 Far North East)
  • 6,199 cases are from the Central area (1,448 Central West, 4,751 Central East)
  • 544 cases have pending residence information
• 562 cases are considered active and 80,627 cases are considered recovered.
• Almost two-fifths (39.3%) of new cases are in the age category of 40 to 59.
• Two-thirds (66.1%) of new cases eligible for vaccination (aged 5 years and older) were fully vaccinated.
• As of December 18th, a total of 101 individuals are hospitalized; including 69 inpatient hospitalizations, and 32 ICU hospitalizations. Of the 101 patients, 63 (62.4%) were not fully vaccinated.
• In addition to SK ICUs, there are no (0) residents in an out-of-province ICUs.
• No (0) new deaths reported today. 942 Saskatchewan residents with COVID-19 have died with a case fatality rate of 1.1%.
• 1,308,693 COVID-19 tests have been performed in the province. As of December 16th, 2021, when other provincial and national numbers are available from PHAC, Saskatchewan’s per capita rate was 1,105,357 tests performed per million population. The national rate was 1,323,947 tests performed per million population.
• The 7-day average of new COVID-19 case numbers is 50 (4.2 new cases per 100,000).