Latest COVID update May 6: 265 recoveries, 156 new cases, 0 deaths

Saskatchewan has reported its lowest single-day total of new COVID-19 cases in more than a month.

On Thursday, the Ministry of Health said there were 156 new infections, the fewest since there were 150 reported on March 23.

There weren’t any deaths reported.

The 265 recoveries that were announced dropped the active caseload to 2,158, the lowest that figure has been since it was 2,141 on April 8.

A look at the numbers

The new cases reported Thursday increased the provincial total to date to 42,376.

The latest cases were reported in the Regina (40), north-central (31), southeast (22), south-central (13), northwest (11), northeast (11), Saskatoon (10), central-east (10), southwest (five), far northwest (one) and far northeast (one). The hometown of one case is pending.

Seventeen cases that were determined by out-of-province testing have been added to Saskatchewan’s total.

There were 115 new cases of variants of concern identified by screening in Saskatchewan, increasing the total so far to 7,695. The Regina region has the highest total, at 4,047.

Of the 3,004 cases of variants identified by whole genome sequencing in Saskatchewan, 2,962 are the United Kingdom strain, 33 are the Brazilian variant and nine are the South African mutation.

The seven-day average of new COVID-19 cases is 216, or 17.6 per 100,000 population.

There are 173 people in Saskatchewan hospitals due to COVID, including 41 in intensive care. Those patients are in the Regina (23), Saskatoon (14), central-east (two), north-central (one) and south-central (one) zones.

The 3,494 COVID tests processed in Saskatchewan on Wednesday hiked the provincial total so far to 789,619.

Vaccination update

There were 10,195 doses administered in the province in the latest reporting period, moving the total so far to 480,910.

The latest shots were given in the Saskatoon (2,932), Regina (2,772), northeast (678), southeast (589), central-east (572), northwest (454), north-central (409), central-west (384), far northwest (315), southwest (287), south-central (243), far northeast (182), and far north-central (10) zones.

There were 368 doses administered with zone of residence pending.

As of Wednesday, 82 per cent of Saskatchewan residents over the age of 60 had received their first dose of a COVID vaccine and 67 per cent of those 40 and over had received their first dose.