More Variant Cases of COVID-19 Find Their Way Into Saskatchewan

Three detected and one presumptive case of COVID-19 variant strains are being included in Tuesday’s update from the Ministry of Health, bringing to seven the number of confirmed variant of concern cases in Saskatchewan. Six of those are the B1.1.7 U-K, including one presumptive case, and one B1.351 S-A. The latest reports had two Regina residents being detected with the B1.1.7 U-K strain, the presumptive case is with a person in the Saskatoon zone and the confirmed B1.351 S-A case has been detected to a resident of the North Central zone. For the two Regina cases, based on the contact investigation to date, there is no link to travel at this time but public health’s investigation is on-going. For the presumptive Saskatoon case, the individual was transferred from out of province to Saskatoon for acute care. Whole genome sequencing will need to be completed to confirm the results. Public health’s contact investigation is on-going. As for the North Central zone infection, the individual was tested at the end of January. Public health’s investigation is on-going.

Meanwhile, Saskatchewan registered its lowest number of new cases in 12 days in Tuesday’s update from the Ministry of Health…but there were four deaths included in the report, upping the provincial death toll because of COVID-19 to 376. Three of the fatalities were people in the 80-plus age bracket…two from Regina and one from Saskatoon…while the fourth death was a senior in their 70s from Regina.

Otherwise, there were 122 new cases of the novel coronavirus, plus 244 new recoveries, leaving 1,530 active cases of COVID-19 in Saskatchewan. Of those active cases, 158 are in hospital receiving inpatient care while another 16 hospitalized infections are in an I-C-U. The seven-day average for daily new cases in the province crept up slightly to 156 in Tuesday’s update.

In addition, as vaccine availability drains again in Saskatchewan, there were 549 doses administered Monday over six different zones for a provincial total of 62,342.

COVID-19 Variant Cases Update

B1.1.7 UK has been detected in two residents in the Regina zone. These individuals were tested at the end of January. Based on the contact investigation to date, there is no link to travel at this time but public health’s investigation is on-going.

B1.351 SA (South Africa) has been detected in one resident in the North Central zone. This individual was tested at the end of January. Public health’s investigation is on-going.

There is a presumptive case of B1.1.7 UK in one individual in the Saskatoon zone. The individual was transferred from out of province to Saskatoon for acute care. Whole genome sequencing will need to be completed to confirm the results. Public health’s contact investigation is on-going.

This brings the provincial total of confirmed variant of concern cases to seven: fsix B1.1.7 UK including one presumptive case, and one B1.351 SA.

All residents with a confirmed COVID-19 test are required to isolate to reduce the risk of transmission. If required, public health will issue a public service announcement to alert the general public to any risk due to any confirmed case of a variant of concern. The Government of Saskatchewan continues to plan for the impact of variants on COVID-19 including any required increase to public health measures and surge capacity planning.

The best protection against all COVID-19 variants remains the same as protection against COVID-19: stay home, physically distance, wash your hands frequently, wear a mask and get tested if you are experiencing even mild symptoms.

Daily COVID-19 Statistics

There are 122 new cases of COVID-19 to report in Saskatchewan on February 23, bringing the provincial total to 27,923 cases.

The new cases are located in the Far North West (11), Far North Central (5), Far North East (16), North West (10), North Central (4), North East (2), Saskatoon (25), Central East (7), Regina (37), and South East (1) zones and four (4) cases have pending residence information. Nine cases with pending residence information were assigned to the Far North central (1), Far North East (4), Far North West (1) and North West (3) zones.

Four Saskatchewan residents tested out of province were added to the Far North West (2), North Central (1) zones and one (1) is pending residence information.

There are a total of 26,017 recoveries and 1,530 cases are considered active.

One hundred and seventy-four (174) people are in hospital. One hundred and fifty-eight (158) people are receiving inpatient care: Far North West (8), Far North Central (2), Far North East (2), North West (16), North Central (17), North East (2), Saskatoon (56), Central West (1), Central East (8), Regina (40), South Central (2) and South East (4). Sixteen (16) people are in intensive care: North West (1), North Central (1), Saskatoon (8), and Regina (6).

There were 1,872 COVID-19 tests processed in Saskatchewan on February 22, 2021.

Please note that, like most categories of statistics reported, daily testing numbers include those pending by location as noted in the footnotes daily on the Tests By Region page in the dashboard. Total testing numbers will include tests that are still pending by location; those numbers will not appear in the regional statistics until they are assigned.

To date, 563,055 COVID-19 tests have been processed in Saskatchewan. As of February 21, 2021, when other provincial and national numbers were available, Saskatchewan’s per capita rate was 473,549 tests performed per million population. The national rate was 626,214 tests performed per million population.

The seven-day average of daily new cases is 156 (12.7 new cases per 100,000). A chart comparing today’s average to data collected over the past several months is available on the Government of Saskatchewan website. Please visit https://dashboard.saskatchewan.ca/health-wellness/covid-19/seven-day-average-of-new-covid-cases.

Further statistics on the total number of cases among healthcare workers, breakdowns of total cases by source of infection, age, sex and region, total tests to date and the per capita testing rate can be found on the Government of Saskatchewan website. Please visit www.saskatchewan.ca/government/health-care-administration-and-provider-resources/treatment-procedures-and-guidelines/emerging-public-health-issues/2019-novel-coronavirus/cases-and-risk-of-covid-19-in-saskatchewan.

There were 1,872 COVID-19 tests processed in Saskatchewan on February 22, 2021.

Vaccine Delivery

There were 549 COVID-19 vaccine doses administered Monday in Saskatchewan, bringing the total number of vaccines administered in the province to 62,342.

The 549 doses were administered in the Far North Central (11), Saskatoon (196), North East (11), North West (78), Central East (83), and Regina (170) zones. An additional 21 doses were administered in the Central East zone on February 17 and an additional 52 doses were administered in the South Central zone on February 19.

For a listing of first and second doses in Saskatchewan administered by geographic zone, visit https://www.saskatchewan.ca/covid19-vaccine-update.