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The number of cases of COVID-19 variants in Saskatchewan is up to nine.
The provincial government announced Monday another three cases of the United Kingdom variant had been confirmed by the Roy Romanow Provincial Laboratory (RPPL).
Two of the newly confirmed cases were in the Regina zone and the other was in the northwest area. One of the three was the presumptive case first announced Feb. 23.
Saskatchewan is now reporting eight cases of the U.K. variant and one of the South African variant.
“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 government said in a media release.
“The province will continue to send up to 120 samples per week to the National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg to ensure a larger sample size.”
The government also announced 97 new COVID cases, 151 recoveries and one death.
An individual in their 60s who lived in the Saskatoon zone is the latest fatality in the province due to COVID. To date, 399 Saskatchewan residents have died due to the virus.
Regina is once again the hotspot for new cases, with 50 of them. There were 392 tests done in the Queen City on Sunday, meaning the test positivity rate in the city was 12.8 per cent.
The other new cases were in the central-east (12), north-central (10), Saskatoon (six), far northeast (five), northwest (four), northeast (three), south-central (two), southeast (two) and far northwest (one) zones. The hometowns of two cases are pending.
The seven-day average of daily new cases is 144, or 11.7 per 100,000 population.
To date, there have been 29,806 COVID cases in the province.
The recoveries announced Monday increased that total so far to 27,944. There are 1,463 active cases being reported in the province.
There are 140 people in Saskatchewan hospitals, including 23 in intensive care units. Those cases are located in the Saskatoon (12), Regina (eight), central-east (two) and north-central (one) regions.
The 1,753 tests done in the province increased the total to date to 595,869.
Vaccination update
There were 892 doses of COVID-19 vaccine administered in Saskatchewan on Sunday, hiking the total to date in the province to 92,776.
The latest vaccinations included 528 in the north-central zone, 347 in the Saskatoon area and 17 in the far north-central region.
