Latest COVID update Jan. 4: 1,954 cases reported over New Year’s weekend

Saskatchewan is reporting 1,954 new COVID-19 cases were accumulated over a four-day period between Friday and Monday.

Single-day case counts were 623 on Friday, 607 on Saturday, 398 on Sunday and 326 on Monday.

In a news release Tuesday, the province said 95 per cent of the new cases are the Omicron variant.

“Based on this percentage, it is assumed that all new COVID-19 cases in the province are Omicron,” the news release read.

“All specimens from international travellers who test positive in Saskatchewan will continue to undergo whole genome sequencing to determine their lineage, as well as randomly selected cases from across the province to continue surveillance of circulating virus.”

The seven-day average of new COVID cases rose to 515, or 42.7 per 100,000 — its highest mark ever in Saskatchewan.

Hospitalizations increased by 16 since Friday, up from 79 to 95 people. There are 84 people receiving inpatient care across the province and 11 people receiving intensive care. Of the 95 patients, 49 — or 51.6 per cent — were not fully vaccinated.

The update from the Ministry of Health upped the total cases to 87,167 since the pandemic began.

Five new deaths were reported since the last government update. The total number of COVID-related deaths in Saskatchewan now stands at 960.

A look at the numbers

New cases were located in the Saskatoon (566), Regina (509), central-east (175), southeast (144), south-central (124), north-central (89), northeast (53), northwest (44), southwest (43), central-west (37), far northeast (13) and far northwest (nine) zones.

An additional 26 residents who tested positive out of the province were added to the case counts.

Just over half (50.2 per cent) of the new cases were in the 20-to-39 age group.

Active cases rose to 4,062, the highest since Oct. 16 when the count was 4,297.

Of the five deaths since Friday, two were in the Regina region with one in each of the northwest, Saskatoon and southeast zones.

Each zone in Saskatchewan has at least one case of the Omicron variant except for the far north-central.

There were 15,469 COVID-19 tests processed in Saskatchewan the last six days.

Testing update

PCR testing was at a high demand in the province’s two largest cities on Tuesday. By early afternoon, the testing site in each city was at capacity.

The Saskatchewan Health Authority tweeted around 1:30 p.m., that the drive-thru testing site on Thatcher Avenue in Saskatoon was at capacity. Then, about an hour later, the authority tweeted the same thing about the drive-thru site on University Park Drive in Regina.

Both are the only drive-thru sites in their cities. Saskatoon has a walk-in testing site listed, but Regina does not.

In those tweets, the health authority reminded people that the guidelines changes last week indicate a positive result from a rapid test no longer needs to be confirmed by a PCR test, the person can just start their isolation.

The PCR test is still recommended for those who have symptoms or those who are a priority like health-care workers or long-term care residents.

Fourth doses for immunocompromised

The province also opened up booster eligibility Tuesday.

People who are “moderately to severely immunocompromised and have had three doses for their primary COVID-19 vaccination series” may now receive a fourth dose as long as it is three months after they received their third dose.

That includes people who had received a letter of eligibility from the Ministry of Health, as well as people who received chemo and immuno-suppressive therapies, those with HIV or who have had organ transplants.

Update your QR code

The daily update also included a reminder for people to update their MySaskHealthRecord vaccine certificate after receiving a booster dose since the QR code only includes the information at the time it was generated.