7-day average of COVID-19 cases in Sask. breaks record set one day ago

REGINA -

Saskatchewan’s seven-day average of new COVID-19 cases reached a new high on Tuesday, breaking the record set just one day ago.

The government reported 305 new cases of COVID-19 Tuesday, bringing the seven-day average to 350 – or 29.1 per 100,000 people.

Saskatchewan has recorded more than 300 new cases each day for the last five days, something that has only happened once before.

Of the 305 new cases confirmed Tuesday, 265 people – or 87 per cent – were not fully vaccinated. The greatest number of new cases is in the 0-19 age group where there are 116 new cases in total, 111 of which are in youth who are not fully vaccinated.

CTV News reached out to the Saskatchewan Health Authority and Ministry of Health to request data on how many of the 111 unvaccinated cases were found in children under the age of 12, who are ineligible for the COVID-19 shot. A spokesperson for the ministry said a further breakdown is not available.

CASES CLIMB IN THE BRIDGE CITY

New cases continue to mount in Saskatoon; there were 84 new cases reported in the city Tuesday. Other new cases were reported in the Far Northwest (nine), Far North Central (two), Far Northeast (37), Northwest (35), North Central (39), Northeast (18), Central West (five), Central East (10), Regina (16), Southwest (five), South Central (three) and Southeast (nine) zones. The location of 33 new cases is pending residence information.

There are 3,184 active cases in Saskatchewan.

One more person has died from COVID-19. The person was from the Regina zone and was above the age of 80. To date, 613 people in Saskatchewan have died as a result of COVID-19.

HOSPITALIZATIONS

Hospitalizations increased to 154 since the province’s last update. There are 27 COVID-19 patients in ICUs across the province, including 19 in Saskatoon and four in Regina. According to the province 110 of the 154 people in hospital are not fully vaccinated.

CTV News reached out to the Saskatchewan Health Authority and Ministry of Health to request data on the age ranges of those in hospital on Tuesday. A spokesperson for the ministry said that data is reported monthly.

The government released COVID-19 hospitalization data for August on Tuesday. Those numbers show 5.3 per cent of people hospitalized with COVID-18 last month were age 19 or younger and 3.2 per cent were under 12. One patient under 12 was admitted to the ICU.

VACCINATIONS

The province said health care workers have administered an additional 294 COVID-19 vaccines since the last update; 133 were first doses and 161 were second shots.

The pace of vaccinations in Saskatchewan continues to plateau. The total number of COVID-19 vaccine doses given in the province has increased by just four percent over the last 30 days, moving from 1,432,560 to 1,490,412. The number of full vaccinated resident has increased 5.5 per cent over the same time period, and the number of people with a first dose has grown by three per cent.

VARIANTS OF CONCERN

According to the government, a total of 12,437 COVID-19 cases have been identified as variants of concern. Of those cases, 10,189 have been whole genome sequenced; 7,123 are Alpha (B.1.1.7), 2,582 are Delta (B.1.617.2), 474 are Gamma (P.1), and 10 are Beta (B.1.351).