The daily rate of COVID-19 cases in Saskatchewan increased Thursday, with one death and 259 new cases reported by the provincial government.
To date, 54 residents of the province have died after contracting COVID. The latest was an individual in the 80-and-over age range who lived in the province’s south zone.
Saskatchewan has now seen 17 COVID-related deaths in the past eight days, with most in the 80-and-over range (13), as well as the 70-to-79 (three) and 60-t0-69 (one) categories.
The total number of positive cases in Saskatchewan since March has now increased to 9,244, with 4,017 currently active and 5,173 recovered. The number of active cases went over 4,000 for the first time.
New cases were reported in the Regina (112), Saskatoon (50), northwest (21), southwest (21), north-central (20), south-central (10), far northwest (nine), southeast (six), central-west (three), central-east (three), northeast (two) and far northeast (one) zones. Residence information has not yet been determined for one additional case.
Since the Wednesday update, 214 people have recovered.
There currently are 128 COVID patients still in Saskatchewan hospitals, down from the record high of 132 reported on Wednesday.
Of those, 24 remain in intensive care in the Saskatoon (11), Regina (nine), north-central (three), and northwest zones (one). Other inpatient cases are spread out between the Saskatoon (41), Regina (20), southeast (20), north central (nine), northwest (eight), central east (two), southwest (two), far northwest (one) and northeast (one) zones.
The province crept closer to its stated goal of testing 4,000 people per day, conducting 3,247 COVID-19 tests on Wednesday.
The origins of a majority of Saskatchewan’s 9,244 cases are not currently known. The province reported 2,221 have no known exposures, and 2,608 are under investigation by local public health workers.
Of those that have been traced, 3,929 are due to community contacts, including mass gatherings, and 486 were travellers to the province.
The largest number of cases, 2,802, have been reported in the Saskatoon region, with 1,859 in the north, 1,746 in Regina, 1,188 in the south, 976 in the far north, and 643 in the central zones. The hometowns of 30 cases are unknown.
The number of health-care workers to contract the virus rose to 285.