Latest COVID update Oct. 5: 340 in hospital, 242 new cases, 10 deaths

Saskatchewan reported its lowest daily total of COVID-19 cases in more than a month Tuesday, but also reported its highest-ever daily total of hospitalizations.

The Ministry of Health said there were 242 new cases, the fewest since there were 199 new cases announced Aug. 30.

The cases reported Tuesday were detected among 2,378 tests for a test positivity rate of 10.2. That’s the lowest total of tests done in a day since 2,185 were processed on Sept. 7.

The 340 COVID-related hospitalizations broke the previous record of 325 that was set Monday. The total Tuesday included 73 cases in intensive care.

The government said of the total number of hospitalizations, 259 people weren’t fully vaccinated.

The latest deaths included seven people in the 80-and-over age group, two between the ages of 60 and 79 and one between the ages of 40 and 59.

Saskatchewan has recorded at least one death in 31 straight days; there were 44 deaths reported in the past week.

The death toll in the province due to COVID now stands at 726.

A look at the numbers

The new cases were reported in the Saskatoon (59), northwest (35), central-east (16), south-central (14), southeast (14), north-central (12), southwest (11), northeast (10), far northeast (10), Regina (eight), far northwest (eight) and central-west (six) zones.

The hometowns of 39 cases are pending.

The new cases included 194 unvaccinated people, 31 fully vaccinated individuals and 17 partially vaccinated people.

Among the unvaccinated new cases were 40 children under the age of 11, the group that isn’t eligible to get a shot yet. There also were 29 people in their 30s, 28 kids aged 12 to 19, 27 individuals in their 40s and 24 people in the 20-to-29 age range.

To date, 69,331 cases have been identified in Saskatchewan. The seven-day average of new cases dropped to 427.

There were 482 recoveries announced, increasing that total so far to 64,220. The active caseload dropped by 250 to 4,385.

Vaccination update

The 1,572 doses of COVID vaccine administered included 751 first doses and 821 second doses. It’s the first time in 18 days that first doses didn’t equal or exceed second shots.

There also have been 38,781 third doses and 1,411 fourth doses administered so far.

To date, more than 1.57 million COVID shots have been given in Saskatchewan and more than 743,000 people are considered fully vaccinated.

So far, 82 per cent of those 12 and over in the province have received their first dose and 73 per cent of those 12 and up are considered fully vaccinated.