Latest COVID update Jan. 19: Hospitalizations continue to climb

The number of people with COVID-19 in Saskatchewan’s hospitals has more than doubled in the past two weeks.

According to the Ministry of Health, there were 199 people with COVID in health-care facilities in the province Wednesday — 10 more than was reported in Tuesday’s update. There were 95 hospitalizations on Jan. 4, representing a 110 per cent increase since then.

The number of hospital patients with COVID in the province hasn’t been as high as Wednesday’s total since Nov. 6, when it was also 199.

The 178 inpatient hospitalizations reported Wednesday included 90 COVID patients and 71 people who tested positive in hospital after being admitted for another reason. There also were 17 people whose infection status was still being determined.

Of the 21 ICU patients, 15 had COVID-19 related illnesses, five had incidental COVID-19 infections, and one was undetermined.

The ministry also said Wednesday that 1,223 new cases had been reported by public health, along with 1,147 recoveries.

There weren’t any COVID-related deaths reported for a 13th straight day. To date, 961 Saskatchewan residents have died as a result of COVID.

A look at the numbers

The new cases reported Wednesday were in the Saskatoon (307), Regina (304), southeast (89), south-central (76), north-central (66), central-east (62), northwest (45), southwest (38), northeast (37), far northwest (15), far northeast (12), central-west (11), and far north-central (six) zones.

The hometowns of 155 cases were pending.

The cases in Saskatoon were detected among 839 tests done by health-care officials, meaning 36.6 per cent of those tests returned a positive result. The rate in Regina was 38.1, with the province’s rate at 31.2.

There were 37 cases who tested positive outside of the province added to Saskatchewan’s total, which stood at 103,901.

The seven-day average of new COVID cases in Saskatchewan rose to 1,240 or 102.9 per 100,000 people.

The active case count increased to 11,894. To date, 91,046 cases are considered recovered.

Vaccination update

There were 1,794 doses of COVID vaccine administered, comprising 653 first shots and 1,141 second doses.

To date, 1,835,954 first and second doses of COVID vaccines have been administered in the province.