Saskatchewan is reporting 735 new cases of COVID-19 Friday. Saskatoon accounted for 286 of the new infections while the Regina area tallied 180 new cases. The number of confirmed Omicron cases remains at 117 while the probable number of Omicron cases has jumped to 1,355 from 1,055 in Thursday’s report. Hospitalizations remain the same at 79, although the number of people receiving care in an ICU has dropped two from 14 to 12. No new deaths were included in Friday’s report. Of the 79 people receiving care in hospital, 48 were not fully vaccinated.

Premier Scott Moe issued a statement regarding Friday’s numbers. He said the more important numbers to track are the hospitalizations and ICU admissions and that higher cases numbers are expected with the contagiousness of the Omicron variant.

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

• As of December 31, there are 735 new confirmed cases of COVID-19, bringing the total to 85,188 reported cases
• The new cases are located in the Far North West (9), North West (19), North Central (23), North East (7), Saskatoon (286), Central West (21), Central East (50), Regina (180), South West (4), South Central (47) and South East (58) zones and 31 new cases have pending residence information
• 12 cases were assigned to the Far North East (from December 29 (6)), North West (from December 29 (2)), North Central (from December 29 (1)), Saskatoon (from December 29 (1)), Central East (from December 29 (1)), and South East (from December 29 (1)) zones
• Seven (7) SK residents tested positive out-of-province were added to the case counts in the Saskatoon (from December 28 (2)), Central West (from December 28 (2)), Regina (from December 26 (1), December 27 (1), December 29 (1)) zones.
• 85,188 cases are confirmed
  • 20,672 cases are from the Saskatoon area
  • 20,213 cases are from the North area (8,977 North West, 8,359 North Central, 2,877 North East)
  • 16,892 cases are from the Regina area
  • 10,764 cases are from the South area (2,259 South West, 3,181 South Central, 5,324 South East)
  • 9,443 cases are from the Far North area (4,438 Far North West, 541 Far North Central, 4,464 Far North East)
  • 6,516 cases are from the Central area (1,533 Central West, 4,983 Central East)
  • 688 cases have pending residence information
• 2,844 cases are considered active and 81,389 cases are considered recovered
• Over two-fifths (43.3%) of new cases are in the age category of 20 to 39
• More than one-fourth (28.6%) of new cases eligible for vaccination (aged 5 years and older) were fully vaccinated
• As of December 31st, a total of 79 individuals are hospitalized, including 67 inpatient hospitalizations and 12 ICU hospitalizations. Of the 79 patients, 48 (60.8%) were not fully vaccinated.
  • There are currently no patients who have been hospitalized due to Omicron but 1 (one) patient in hospital admitted for non-COVID-related healthcare who has tested positive for Omicron. The province has announced public reporting distinguishing COVID-19 hospitalizations and hospitalizations where COVID-19 diagnosis followed hospitalization. That reporting mechanism is expected to be ready the week of January 3.
• No (0) new deaths today. 955 Saskatchewan residents with COVID-19 have died, with a case fatality rate of 1.1%.
• 1,331,162 COVID-19 tests have been performed in the province. As of December 29, 2021, when other provincial and national numbers are available from PHAC, Saskatchewan’s per capita rate was 1,122,962 tests performed per million population and was lower than the national rate of 1,374,277 tests performed per million population.
• As of December 30th, new lineage results were reported for zero (0) new case. The provincial total of VOC with identified lineage is 17,605 including 7,123 B.1.1.7 (Alpha), 9,871 B.1.617.2 (Delta), 484 P.1 (Gamma), 10 B.1.351 (Beta), and 117 B.1.1.529 (Omicron).
• New Omicron VOC probable (positive screen) results were reported for 300 new cases. The provincial total of Omicron VOC probable (positive screen) is 1,355.
• Of the total 1,355 screening positive cases including 101 pending location, 30.3% are in the Saskatoon zone, 36.5% are in the Regina zone and the remaining 450 cases (33.2%) are spread across the remaining zones, with each zone has at least one Omicron case except Far North Central
• The 7-day average of new COVID-19 case numbers was 333 (27.6 new cases per 100,000)