Four residents who tested positive for COVID-19 have died. Two new deaths were reported in the North West zone, including one person in the 80-plus age group and another in the 70 to 79 age group. Two new deaths in the 80-plus age group were reported in Regina. That brings the total number of deaths in the province to 134.
There are 154 new cases of COVID-19 to report in Saskatchewan, as of Dec. 24, 2020.
The new cases are located in the Saskatoon (30), North Central (28), Regina (25), North West (17), Far North East (14), Far North West (10), Central East (10), North East (3), South Central (3), South East (3), and Central West (2) zones.
Nine new cases have pending residence information.
There are now 14,255 reported cases, including 3,346 active cases.
The seven-day average of daily new cases is 203 (16.7 new cases per 100,000 population).
As of December 23, 2020, 1,786 doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine have been provided to health care workers in Regina as part of the initial pilot and Saskatoon as part of Phase 1.
The provincial dashboard reports that 125 people are in hospital. One hundred and four people are receiving inpatient care — 40 in Saskatoon, 25 in Regina,18 in the North Central, four in the North West, four in the Central East, four in the South East, three in the North East, two in the Far North West, two in the Central West, and two in the South West. Twenty-one people are in intensive care — 10 in Saskatoon, six in the North Central, three in Regina, one in the North West, and one in the South West.
The Saskatchewan Health Authority notes that the province is updating definitions of the COVID-19 infectious period to align with national definitions. As a result, the number of individuals hospitalized due to COVID-19 has ben under-reported in the daily, provincial report. As of Dec. 22, there were an additional 40 COVID-19 patients in hospital, including nine in ICU, resulting in the reported case number of 165.
The SHA adds these are not new hospitalizations. These are patients no longer infectious for COVID-19, which had shifted them from active to recovered cases, but are still experiencing the complications of COVID-19 illness. Validation processes are in place to report a complete census of patients in hospital, including ICU, due to COVID-19. The Ministry of Health is currently reviewing how these cases are reported in other Canadian jurisdictions.
Six hundred and fifty-five more people have recovered, increasing the provincial total to 10,775 recoveries.
Of the 14,255 cases in the province:
- 608 cases are travelers;
- 6,942 are community contacts (including mass gatherings);
- 3,293 have no known exposures; and
- 3,412 are under investigation by local public health.
On a regional level:
- 4,086 cases are from the Saskatoon area;
- 3,366 cases are from the north area (1,323 north west, 1,574 north central, 469 north east);
- 2,814 cases are from the Regina area;
- 1,515 cases are from the south area (554 south west, 528 south central, 433 south east);
- 1,543 cases are from the far north area (867 far north west, 106 far north central, 570 far north east);
- 884 cases are from the central area (333 central west, 551 central east); and
- 47 cases have pending residence information.
A total of 415,541 COVID-19 tests have been processed in Saskatchewan. Yesterday, 2,394 COVID-19 tests were processed.
For more information, visit www.saskatchewan.ca/COVID19. You can find the maps and the breakdown of cases by region on the government's website.
