Latest COVID update Jan. 20: 1,158 new cases, 215 hospitalizations

More than 40 per cent of COVID-19 tests done in Saskatchewan’s two largest cities and reported to the Ministry of Health on Wednesday returned positive results.

In Thursday’s update from the ministry, Saskatoon reported 366 new cases among 839 tests for a rate of 43.6 per cent. There were 349 positive cases detected among 840 tests in Regina for a percentage of 41.5.

Provincewide, there were 1,158 new cases reported in 3,513 tests — a rate of 33.0 per cent.

Saskatchewan also reported there were 215 people with COVID in the province’s hospitals, the most since there were 226 COVID-related hospitalizations on Nov. 3. The total reported Thursday represented an increase of 16 from the day before.

The 192 COVID inpatient admissions included 90 people who sought treatment for the virus, 88 individuals who went to the hospital for another reason, and 14 people whose reason for going to hospital hasn’t been determined.

There also were 23 people with COVID in intensive care, 15 of whom had COVID-related illnesses, six who were incidental COVID infections and two who were undetermined.

There weren’t any COVID-related deaths reported in the province for a 14th straight day. To date, 961 Saskatchewan residents have died due to COVID.

A look at the numbers

In addition to the new cases in the Regina and Saskatoon zones, others were reported in the central-east (66), southeast (64), northwest (54), north-central (42), south-central (35), central-west (18), far northeast (18), northeast (13), far northwest (10) and southwest (10) zones. The hometowns of 113 cases were pending.

According to the government, 637 of the new cases were fully vaccinated (more than 14 days since their second dose), 243 were fully vaccinated and had gone more than 14 days since receiving their booster dose, 221 were unvaccinated or were fewer than 21 days from their first dose, and 57 had received their first dose or were less than 21 days from their second dose.

The seven-day average of new COVID cases was 1,269, or 105.3 new cases per 100,000 people.

To date, there have been 105,072 cases reported in Saskatchewan and 92,138 recoveries. The active case count rose to 11,973.

There were 2,020 COVID vaccinations reported, including 757 first shots and 1,263 second jabs. So far in Saskatchewan, nearly 1.84 million first and second shots have been administered.