Saskatchewan is reporting 168 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday with 70 of those occurring in the Regina zone.
With 105 recoveries, the active case count now stands at 1,623.
The other new cases are located in the Far North West (2), Far North East (3), North West (3), North Central (2), North East (1), Saskatoon (25), Central West (3), Central East (19), South Central (11), and South East (24) zones.
There are two more deaths to report. One was someone in 40’s from the north central zone with the other in their 70’s from the east central region. This brings the provincial total to 422.
154 people are in hospital with 22 of those in ICU.
The seven-day daily average now stands at 181 or 14.7 new cases per 100,000 population. The last time the number was that high was on February 11.
Meanwhile, variants of concern cases are now over the 1,000 mark. Of the 1,064 cases that have been identified in Saskatchewan, 895 of them are from the Regina zone. Chief Medical Health Officer Dr. Saqib Shahab said on Thursday that the bulk of the new cases in Regina continue to be in younger age groups.
“People ages 18 to 49 are the people who are out and about, work public-facing jobs. And when you have something that is more transmissible, you see a very quick transmission from work place to a household, then to school,” explained Shahab.
The government noted during Thursday’s update that the South Central and South East zones are starting to see a rise in new variants of concern cases, reporting a combined total of 129 cases respectively. Shahab said other areas of the province could see similar restrictions like what the Regina zone is currently under if those numbers do not stabilize.
“If you see a number of cases that are linked to a particular outbreak, that can be somewhat reassuring,” started Shahab. “But if you see lots of cases that are not linked to one another, that speaks to uncontrolled community transmission. If we start seeing that in any community, unfortunately we would have to think of further progressive measures.”
4,249 vaccines were administered Wednesday with the majority being delivered in Regina and Saskatoon.
(Files from Moises Canales)
