Two more residents of the Regina area have died after contracting COVID-19.
In its daily update, the province says a person in the 70-to-79 age range and another in the 80-and-over range have died. That brings the total number of COVID-related deaths in the province to 107, with 18 fatalities reported so far this week.
The 485 recoveries reported Friday mark the second-highest daily total reported since March. With 245 new cases reported Friday, the number of total active cases falls to 3,736 — the lowest it has been since it was 3,605 on Nov. 29.
In all, 9,234 people have recovered from COVID-19 in Saskatchewan.
The new cases announced Friday were in the northwest (53), Saskatoon (46), Regina (42), far northeast (28), north-central (16), northeast (14), far northwest (12), south-central (seven), central-west (five), southeast (five), central-east (four), southwest (two) and far north-central (one) areas.
The hometowns of 10 new cases remain unknown.
The number of province-wide hospitalizations has fallen for the first time in a week, with 121 people in hospital with COVID currently.
Seventeen of those cases in intensive are in the Saskatoon (nine), north-central (five) and Regina (three) zones. The other 104 people in hospital are in the Saskatoon (41), Regina (24), north-central (20), northwest (eight), southeast (five), far northwest (three), central-east (two), and central-west (one) zones.
Health-care workers continue to be among those diagnosed with COVID-19. To date 551 have tested positive, with 121 of those cases identified this week alone.
Of the 13,077 cases year to date in the province, 575 are travellers, 6,292 are the result of community contacts, 3,273 are being investigated, and 2,937 have unknown sources.
The Saskatoon area has seen 3,836 positive cases; the Regina area has had 2,606; the south region has seen 1,471; the far north has had 1,395; the central has reported 797; and 47 cases have not had resident location determined.
Nearly 400,000 tests have been processed in Saskatchewan since the pandemic began.