Latest COVID update March 21: Regina continues to be province’s COVID hotspot, damaged freezer delays vaccine shipment

Regina continues to the province’s COVID hotspot.

In a news release Sunday, the Ministry of Health reported 178 new cases of the virus. The Queen City had more than 5 times the cases reported in Saskatoon.

Those cases are located in the Regina (105), Saskatoon (19), north-central (15), southeast (10), far northwest (one), far northeast (one), northwest (eight), northeast (seven), central-west (one), central-east (six) and south-central (three) areas. Contact tracers are still investigating the location of two new cases.

One new death was also reported in the province, someone from the Regina area who was 80 or older.

There were 164 recoveries across Saskatchewan, leaving the active case number at 1,447. The seven-day average of daily new cases now sits at 146, or 11.9 cases per 100,000 people.

There were no new confirmed cases of COVID variants Sunday.

There are 139 people in hospital. Of those, 29 are in intensive care in the Regina (16), Saskatoon (10), central-east (two) and south-central (one) regions.

There were 2,709 tests processed in the province Saturday.

Vaccination update

Saskatchewan’s COVID vaccine supply for next week is taking a hit, thanks to a technical problem.

A damaged thermal shipper means that the province will receive 5,850 fewer Pfizer doses than originally anticipated next week. Now, the shipment will 30,420 doses.

People continue to roll up their sleeves. There were 5,999 new doses given as of Sunday afternoon. The total number of shots rose to 139,827.

The new doses were given in the Regina (3,118), Saskatoon (1,591), central-east (506), south-central (550), southeast (122), far northeast (42), northwest (48) and northeast areas.