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Saskatchewan’s provincial laboratory has been given the go-ahead to test for COVID-19 variants of concern.
In a media release Monday, the Ministry of Health said the Roy Romanow Provincial Laboratory (RRPL) had received the certification necessary to perform whole genome sequencing — the testing that determines if a positive case involves a COVID variant.
The ministry also reported there were 154 new cases of the original COVID virus in the province Monday as well as 146 recoveries. For the second straight day, there weren’t any deaths reported.
Testing update
According to the ministry, the RRPL immediately can test up to 192 samples per week to determine if there are COVID variants among the positive cases.
“In order to monitor for variants of concern, the RRPL will continue to focus whole genome sequencing testing on COVID positive results linked to international travel, declared outbreaks and cases of unexpected severe illness, as well as a random sampling of confirmed cases,” the ministry said in a media release.
As well, Saskatchewan will continue to send as many as 120 samples per week to the National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg to ensure a larger sample size.
A look at the numbers
The new cases reported Monday increased the province’s total to date to 28,801.
The latest cases were recorded in the Regina (53), Saskatoon (33), northwest (14), central-east (14), far northwest (12), north-central (10), far northeast (five), far north-central (three), northeast (two), southeast (two) and central-west (one) zones. Five cases are pending residence information.
The seven-day average of daily new cases is 143, or 11.6 per 100,000. The government noted that’s the lowest seven-day average since early November.
To date in Saskatchewan, there have been 26,865 recoveries and 1,551 cases currently are considered active.
There are 151 people in Saskatchewan hospitals, including 21 in intensive care. Those people are in the Saskatoon (11), Regina (nine) and northwest (one) areas.
The 1,741 COVID tests done in Saskatchewan on Sunday increased the provincial total so far to 578,066.
Vaccination update
There were 356 vaccinations done in Saskatchewan on Sunday, increasing the province’s total to date to 79,289.
The shots administered Sunday were in the north-central (232) and northwest (124) zones.
Updated data from last week added 677 vaccinations to the province’s total, with 323 in the southeast, 212 in the northwest, 120 in the central-east and 22 in far northeast zones.
