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The number of COVID-19 patients in Saskatchewan hospitals has fallen to its lowest mark in April.
According to the Ministry of Health, 173 people are in hospitals around the province due to the virus. That includes 37 patients in intensive care units — the lowest that number has been since it was 37 on April 2.
The ICU cases are in the Regina (23), Saskatoon (nine), north-central (two), central-east (two) and northwest (one) zones.
The ministry on Friday also reported 264 new cases, 252 recoveries, 222 new cases of variants of concern, and four deaths.
A person in their 40s from the Regina area, an individual in their 60s from the far northeast zone and a person in their 70s from the south-central region died due to the virus. The fourth death reported Friday was a person in their 60s whose hometown is still being determined.
To date, 491 Saskatchewan residents have died due to the virus.
The government also reported an individual in Regina was given a ticket for $2,800 for failing to comply with a public health order. No further details were provided.
A look at the numbers
The new cases were recorded in the Regina (79), Saskatoon (63), southeast (25), northwest (24), north-central (15), south-central (14), central-east (11), southwest (11), far northwest (10), northeast (five) and central-west (two). The hometowns of five cases are pending.
The seven-day average of new COVID cases fell to 241, or 19.7 per 100,000 people.
There were 7,508 new cases reported in Saskatchewan in the month of April. Of those, 2,780 were in the Regina region, 1,468 were in the south zone, 1,406 were in the Saskatoon area, 974 were in the north, 539 were in the central region and 282 were in the far north. The residences of 59 cases during the month weren’t identified.
The largest jump in cases among age groups during the month was in the 20-to-39 category, where 2,700 new cases were reported. The 19-and-under (2,087) and 40-to-59 (1,958) age groups also recorded four-digit increases during April.
To date, there have been 41,098 infections reported in the province.
As of Thursday, 6,794 variants of concern have been identified by screening in the province. The Regina area has reported 3,717 of those, with the Saskatoon (765) and southeast (700) zones also reporting more than 700 VOC cases.
Of the 2,522 VOCs with lineages identified by whole genome sequencing in Saskatchewan, 2,491 are the U.K. variant, 22 are the Brazilian mutation and nine are the South African strain.
The recoveries reported Friday increased that total so far to 38,181. As of Friday, 2,426 cases are considered active.
The 3,916 COVID tests processed in Saskatchewan on Thursday hiked the provincial total to date to 769,787.
Vaccination update
There were 5,758 doses of COVID vaccine administered in the province in the latest reporting period, moving the total so far to 427,739.
The latest shots were given in the Saskatoon (1,576), northwest (851), north-central (651), Regina (581), northeast (471), southeast (417), far northwest (225), central-east (193), far northeast (190), southwest (162), central-west (148), south-central (115) and far north-central (three) zones. As well, 175 people whose hometowns are unknown also were immunized.