Latest COVID update April 27: 6 deaths, 224 new cases, 238 recoveries

Six Saskatchewan people have died of COVID-19, the highest number recorded in a day since April 9.

Those who died were in southern Saskatchewan. In the southeast, one person was in the 40-to-49 age group while two others were in the 80-and-over age group. In Regina, two people died — one in their 60s and another in their 80+ age group. In the southwest, there was one person who died who was in the 60-to-69 age group.

Meanwhile, the number of cases of the Brazilian variant of concern has grown by 14 to 19. There are eight cases in each of the northwest and southwest zones, with two in the south-central region and one in Saskatoon.

There have been 6,301 variants of concern (VOC) identified by screening in Saskatchewan, with Regina accounting for 69 per cent or 1, 580 VOC cases.

A look at the numbers

The number of new cases came in at 224 with 70 of those in the Saskatoon zone while Regina’s numbers came in at 30. It’s the first time since March 9 that the Saskatoon area has had more cases than the Regina area.

The northwest recorded 43 new cases, the central-east 21 and north central 17. The southeast has 11 new cases. In the far northwest, there were eight new cases while in south central, there were six new cases and four in the southwest. Two were in central west.

Saskatchewan has had 40,401 cases of COVID-19. Active cases are at 2,518 while the seven-day average of new COVID-19 case number is 248 (20.2 new cases per 100,000). To date, Saskatchewan has processed 759,166 COVID-19 tests.

In hospitals, there are 186 patients with COVID-19. Of those, 42 are in intensive care with 26 in Regina and 10 in Saskatoon.

There were 238 recoveries reported Tuesday, increasing that total so far to 37,401.

Vaccination update

Saskatchewan has now administered a total of 408,429 doses of vaccine.

Most recently, 5,045 were given, with the bulk of those administered in the Saskatoon zone (3,103).

Other zones that administered vaccine doses are northwest (370), Regina (330), north central (305), northeast (146), central west (202), central east (119), southeast (75), southwest (39), south central (38) and far northeast (18). A single dose was administered in far north central while there are 284 doses administered where they are working to determine the hometown of the person who received it.

The health ministry says 58 per cent per of Saskatchewan people over the age of 40 have received their first dose.

Shipments of Moderna and Pfizer are expected this week in Saskatchewan with the pharmacy vaccination pilot receiving a portion.