Latest COVID update Jan. 27: 6 deaths, 149 new cases, 220 in hospital

Saskatchewan reported its highest-ever total of hospitalizations due to COVID-19 on Wednesday while also reporting its lowest total of new cases in nearly a month.

There are 220 people in Saskatchewan hospitals, breaking the previous high of 210.

The province also announced there were 149 new cases, the lowest such total since 147 cases were reported Dec. 30.

There also were six deaths reported, increasing the province’s total since March to 274.

The latest deaths were four people in the 80-and-over age group who lived in the Saskatoon area, a person in their 50s from the Saskatoon zone, and one individual in their 60s from the north-central area.

Of the current hospitalizations, 36 are in intensive care. That includes 18 patients in the Saskatoon area, 12 in the Regina region, two in each of the northwest and north-central zones, and one in each of the central-east and southwest areas.

The inpatient cases included 70 in the Saskatoon area, 39 in the Regina region and 30 in the north-central zone.

The new cases reported Wednesday were in the Saskatoon (48), Regina (38), southeast (15), northwest (eight), north-central (eight), northeast (eight), central-east (seven), far northwest (five), far northeast (three), central-west (two), south-central (two) and far north-central (one) regions. The hometowns of four cases are being investigated.

The seven-day average of new cases in Saskatchewan continued to fall. It now stands at 242, or 19.8 per 100,000 population.

One case that previously was reported in Saskatchewan has been determined to be an out-of-province resident and was removed from the provincial total. Since March, there have been 22,794 cases in the province.

The 264 recoveries reported Wednesday increased that total so far to 19,993. The active case count fell to 2,527, its lowest mark since Nov. 20.

The 2,176 tests processed in Saskatchewan on Tuesday increased that total so far to 497,468. However, Saskatchewan’s per-capita rate of 282,334 people tested per million population was significantly lower than the national rate of 455,473 people tested per million population.

There were 429 doses of COVID-19 vaccine given Tuesday in Saskatchewan — 230 in the Saskatoon area, 119 in the southeast zone, 58 in the northwest and 22 in the far north-central region.

Back-dated corrections submitted Monday also found another 106 doses had been administered. As a result, the total number of vaccinations in the province to date is 34,615.