Ten Saskatchewan residents who previously tested positive for COVID-19 have died over the past two days.
In a media release Tuesday, the Ministry of Health said a person in their 20s from the Saskatoon zone had died.
Two deaths in the 60-to-69 age group were reported, with one in each of the Saskatoon and north-central zones. An individual in their 70s from the Regina zone passed away, as did six people in the 80-and-over group from around the province.
Two of those deaths were in the Regina area, and there was one in each of the far northwest, northwest, north-central and central-east regions.
To date, 151 residents of the province have died due to the coronavirus. Since Nov. 22, COVID-19 has claimed the lives of 118 people in Saskatchewan, including 75 in the 80-and-over age group.
The report issued Tuesday also included numbers from Monday, which was considered a statutory holiday.
There were 208 new cases reported, with 94 on Monday and 114 on Tuesday. That increased the provincial total to date to 15,022 cases.
The new cases were located in the Saskatoon (39), Regina (39), far northeast (36), north-central (33), southeast (15), northwest (13), northeast (eight), central-east (seven), far northwest (four), central-west (four) and southwest (one) zones. The hometowns of nine cases are pending.
There also were 405 recoveries reported, increasing that total so far to 11,680.
The number of active cases fell to 3,191, its lowest level since it was 3,146 on Nov. 26.
The seven-day average of daily new cases is 154, or 12.7 per 100,000 population.
There were 175 people in hospital as of Tuesday, including 32 in intensive care. Those individuals were in the Saskatoon (12), Regina (11), north-central (five), northwest (two), central-east (one) and southwest (one) zones.
The 143 people receiving inpatient care were spread between the Saskatoon (56), Regina (26), north-central (26), southeast (13), northwest (10), central-east (five), northeast (three), central-west (one), far north-central (one), far northwest (one) and southwest (one) regions.
As of Monday, a total of 2,371 doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine had been given to health-care workers in Regina as part of a pilot project and in Saskatoon as part of Phase 1 of the province’s vaccine rollout.
According to a spokesperson for the provincial government, Health Minister Paul Merriman and Dr. Saqib Shahab — the province’s chief medical health officer — are to hold a media conference Wednesday to provide details on the rollout of the Moderna vaccine that’s slated to arrive in the province this week.
Those doses are to go to northern Saskatchewan. Merriman and Shahab also will provide details on a vaccination site for the Pfizer vaccine that’s to open in Prince Albert.
A look at the numbers
To date, 674 Saskatchewan health-care workers have contracted COVID-19. That number has more than doubled since the end of November, when it stood at 256.
The total number of cases in Saskatchewan comprises 7,251 community contacts, 3,693 that are being investigated by local public health officials, 3,458 that don’t have any known exposures, and 620 travellers.
There have been 5,373 cases in the 20-to-39 age range, 3,851 from ages 40 to 59, 3,170 involving people 19 and under, 1,953 between the ages of 60 and 79, and 670 in the 80-and-over range. The ages of five cases are being investigated.
The total includes 4,251 cases from the Saskatoon area, 3,621 in north, 2,923 from the Regina region, 1,654 from the far north, 1,548 in the south, and 920 from the central zone. The hometowns of 105 cases are pending.
The 2,438 tests processed over the two-day period increased Saskatchewan’s total to date to 423,058.