Latest COVID update June 2: Hospitalizations fall to November levels

The number of people in Saskatchewan hospitals with COVID-19 has fallen to its lowest level in more than six months.

In its daily update Wednesday, the Ministry of Health said there were 103 COVID patients in the province’s hospitals. That number hasn’t been that low since Nov. 22, when there were 99 hospitalizations due to COVID.

The province also reported 130 new cases, 116 recoveries, 38 new cases of variants of concern and one death. A person in their 70s from the northwest zone became the 541st Saskatchewan resident to die due to the virus.

A look at the numbers

The hospitalizations include 22 cases in intensive care — 10 in Saskatoon, six in Regina, three in the north-central zone and one in each of the northwest, central-east and south-central zones.

It has been more than two months — since March 30 — that the number of ICU cases has been that low.

The latest new cases were reported in the Saskatoon (46), Regina (22), northwest (13), south-central (12), far northwest (eight), north-central (eight), northeast (seven), southeast (seven), central-east (two), southwest (two) and central-west (one) regions.

The hometowns of two cases are pending.

To date, Saskatchewan has reported 46,964 COVID cases and 45,138 recoveries. The active caseload stands at 1,285.

The 2,798 COVID tests processed in the province on Tuesday hiked the total to date to 865,803.

So far, there have been 10,812 cases of variants of concern identified by screening in Saskatchewan. The 5,794 variant cases with lineages identified by whole genome sequencing comprise 5,594 of the U.K. strain, 159 of the Brazilian mutation, 31 of the Indian variant and 10 of the South African strain.

Vaccination update

There were 9,299 doses of COVID-19 vaccine administered in Saskatchewan in the last session, increasing the province’s total to 740,251.

The latest shots included 6,301 second doses, meaning 93,027 people have received both shots and are considered fully vaccinated.

The shots were given in the Regina (2,490), Saskatoon (2,363), southeast (1,122), northwest (511), central-west (481), central-east (470), southwest (394), north-central (386), south-central (285), northeast (274), far northwest (174), far northeast (174), and far north-central (15) regions.

The hometowns of 160 recipients are being determined.

To date, 77 per cent of those in the province aged 40 and over, 71 per cent of those 30 and over, 66 per cent of people aged 18 and over, and 63 per cent of those 12 and up have received their first doses.