Murray Wood: Who's hot... and who's not
Every Friday, Murray Wood takes a look at the week's news and decides who's hot, and who's not. This week's list include...
More than 500 people have now died of COVID-19 in Saskatchewan, but the number of new cases is again below 200 and the percentage of Saskatchewan people over the age of 40 who have a first vaccine dose continues to climb towards 70 per cent.
Deaths
Two more people have died. Both were in their 70s. One person was in the Saskatoon zone while the other was in the Regina region. Their deaths mean Saskatchewan has had 501 people die of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic.
New cases and recoveries
There were 196 new cases reported Wednesday with Regina recording the most at 44. Saskatoon has 40 new cases while the southeast has 31. New cases were also recorded in the northwest (17), central-east (16), southwest (15), north-central (12), south-central (eight), northeast (five), and central-west and far northwest (two each). There are four new cases for whom hometowns are being determined.
There are 2,250 active cases and 250 new recoveries. Since the start of the pandemic, there have been 42,203 cases of COVID-19 and 39,452 recoveries recorded.
The seven-day average of new COVID-19 cases is 224 or 18.2 new cases per 100,000.
Vaccinations
As for vaccinations, 66 per cent of those 40 years of age or older have had a first dose. In the Saskatchewan government’s Re-Opening Roadmap plan, to reach Step One of re-opening, 70 per cent of people aged 40 or older need to have received their first dose and eligibility has to be open to all adults.
Beginning Thursday, the age of eligibility drops again to include those 35 and over. They can book appointments or visit drive-throughs or walk-in clinics.
There were 9,968 doses administered since the last government update. The most doses were given in Saskatoon (3,348), followed by Regina (2,620), central-east (712), southeast (566), south-central (566), north-central (487), northwest (471), central-west (268), southwest (268), far northeast (91), far northwest (64), and far north-central (five). There were 331 doses given to people for whom hometowns are being determined.
Hospitalizations
There are 171 in hospital with COVID-19, with 39 of those patients needing intensive care.
Regina still has the highest number in ICU at 22 while Saskatoon’s ICU has 14 people. There are two ICU patients in central-east and one in north-central.
