Sask. COVID-19 hospitalizations fall below 200; province adds two deaths

The Saskatchewan government says there are currently 197 COVID-19 hospitalizations in the province — the first time since Sept. 12 there have been less than 200 hospitalizations.

Friday’s provincial COVID-19 update noted there are 148 inpatient hospitalizations and 49 ICU hospitalizations. Of the 197 patients, 134 were not fully vaccinated.

There are also 22 Saskatchewan residents in out-of-province ICUs. The government said this number is not included in the province’s hospitalization counts since these patients are receiving care out of province.

Since Thursday’s report, there has been one repatriation and one out-of-province death, according to the report.

Saskatchewan has recorded two new COVID-19 deaths along with 141 new cases and 126 more recoveries.

The government noted that one death was found not to be related to COVID-19 and was removed from the province’s total on Thursday, which now stands at 863.

Total reported cases are now at 78,403 while total recoveries are now at 75,744.

New cases were identified in the following zones:

• far northwest – two
• far northeast – two
• northwest – 13
• north central – five
• northeast – one
• Saskatoon – 23
• central west – two
• central east – 22
• Regina – 33
• southwest – four
• south central – five
• southeast – 23

Active cases have increased to 1,796 cases with the seven-day average of new COVID-19 cases down to 156, or 13 new cases per 100,000 population.

Just under 25 per cent of new cases are in the age category of 40 to 59, while about 43 per cent of new cases eligible for vaccination were fully vaccinated.

There were 2,336 tests administered on Friday.

New reported doses of the COVID-19 vaccine increased by 61 from Thursday’s update with 3,418 doses given on Friday.