Sask. reports 56 new COVID-19 cases as active cases rise above 500

REGINA -

The Saskatchewan government reported 56 new cases Thursday, along with 48 recoveries and two additional deaths.

The new cases have pushed the active case count back above 500 for the first time since the end of June.

One person who died was in the 60-79 age group; the second person was in the 80 and older age group. As of Aug. 5, 581 people in the province have died from COVID-19.

The new cases are in the Far Northwest (five), Far North Central (two), Far Northeast (two), Northwest (one), North Central (two), Saskatoon (17), Central West (one), Regina (four), Southwest (two), South Central (two) and Southeast (15) zones. Three new cases are pending residence information

There are 53 COVID-19 patients in hospital across the province; 11 of those patients are in the ICU in the North Central (three), Saskatoon (four) and Regina (four) zones.

According to the province, the seven-day average of daily new cases is 51. There were 1,764 tests processed on Wednesday.

VACCINATIONS

The province said health-care workers have administered 3,861 additional doses of the COVID-19 vaccine since the last update. Of those doses, 2,899 were second shots and 962 were first vaccines.

As of Thursday, 1,422,820 total doses have been given in the province and 658,751 people are fully vaccinated.

VARIANTS OF CONCERN

The government said a total of 12,372 COVID-19 cases have been identified as variants of concern. Of those cases, 8,288 have been whole genome sequenced; 7,079 are Alpha (B.1.1.7), 766 are Delta (B.1.617.2), 433 are Gamma (P.1), and 10 are Beta (B.1.351).