Saskatchewan administered its highest one-day total of COVID-19 vaccinations Friday.
The encouraging news comes as the province also reported two more COVID-related deaths and 270 new cases in its daily update Saturday.
The 2,857 vaccine doses were delivered in the following areas: Saskatoon (893), Prince Albert (857), northeast (426), southeast (285), Regina (267) and the far northwest (129). The far north-central region also administered 53 vaccines on Thursday. Friday’s information wasn’t available in the provincial update. There have now been 16,927 vaccines delivered across Saskatchewan.
An update on incoming vaccines from manufacturer Pfizer was also provided in the media release.
“Due to work to expand its European manufacturing facility, production of the Pfizer vaccine will be impacted for a few weeks,” the release stated.
“Pfizer is temporarily reducing deliveries, potentially by half, to all countries receiving vaccine manufactured at this facility.”
The province reaffirmed that vaccines will continue to be administered according to its priority sequence.
A shipment of 4,900 vaccines arrive from manufacturer Moderna on Friday. Distribution is happening in the central and southeast zones. Poor conditions on Friday delayed the shipment arriving in the far northeast zone until Saturday. Clinics are expected to begin Saturday and continue on Sunday.
Daily COVID-19 cases
The province is reporting a total of 19,985 COVID-19 cases.
Both people who tested positive for COVID-19 and died were from the Regina area. One was reported in the 60-69 age group and one was in the 80-plus age category.
The new cases are located in the Saskatoon (68), northwest (49), Regina (47), southeast (26), north-central (23) far northeast (15), northeast (13), far northwest (10), south-central (six), central-east (five) and far north-central (one) zones. Seven new cases are still pending residence information.
There were an additional 12 cases previously without a location assigned to the north-central (six), far northeast (two), far northwest (one), northwest (one), Saskatoon (one) and southwest (one) zones.
A total of 15,730 people have recovered and 4,043 cases are considered active.
The seven-day average of daily new cases is 311 (25.7 new cases per 100,000 population).
There are 199 people in hospital.
Of the 164 receiving inpatient care: 55 are in Saskatoon, 34 are in Regina, 30 are in the north-central region, 10 are in the northeast, 10 are in the southeast, 10 are in the northwest, seven are in the central-east, three are in the far northwest and one person is hospitalized in each of the far north-central, far northeast, central-west, southwest and south-central zones.
Thirty-five people are in intensive care. Patients are located in Saskatoon (17), Regina (nine), north-central (five), northwest (two), central-east (one) and south-central (one).
There were 3,071 COVID-19 tests processed Friday.