Latest COVID update Sept. 15: Number of total cases passes 60,000

Saskatchewan went over the 60,000 mark in total COVID-19 cases Wednesday.

The provincial government reported 475 new cases and the addition of two cases that tested positive outside the province, moving the total since the pandemic started to 60,149.

It’s the second-highest single-day total in Saskatchewan, behind the 506 reported Tuesday.

Of the new cases announced Wednesday, 104 are under the age of 12 — the only group that currently isn’t eligible to be vaccinated.

The daily total included 377 people who weren’t vaccinated, 72 who were fully vaccinated and 26 who had received one dose or were within two weeks of receiving their second shot.

There were two more deaths reported, both in the Saskatoon region. One person was in the 60-to-79 age range and one was in the 80-and-over age group.

To date, 629 Saskatchewan residents have died due to COVID, including 37 in the past three weeks.

The active caseload rose to 4,016, the first time it has been over 4,000 since it was 4,156 on Jan. 19. As of Wednesday, 996 of the active cases were in the Saskatoon region.

A look at the numbers

The new cases reported Wednesday were in the Saskatoon (118), northwest (61), far northeast (47), north-central (41), Regina (36), southeast (25), central-east (25), northeast (23), far northwest (19), southwest (17), south-central (10), central-west (eight) and far north-central (four) zones.

The hometowns of 41 cases are pending.

So far, the Saskatoon region has reported the most cases (14,539), followed by the north (14,264), Regina (12,798), far north (7,484), south (6,802) and central (3,863) regions. A total of 399 cases have pending residence information.

The seven-day average of new COVID cases is 416, or 34.6 per 100,000 population.

There were 387 recoveries reported, increasing that total to date to 55,504.

The number of COVID patients in hospitals stands at 224, with 40 in intensive care. There are 92 people in hospital (including 18 in the ICU) in the Saskatoon region, the highest total in that zone since the pandemic started.

Of the 224 patients in Saskatchewan hospitals, 169 were not fully vaccinated.

There were 2,046 doses of COVID vaccine administered in the province, with 945 of those first doses. So far, 1,505,431 doses have been delivered in Saskatchewan and 711,016 people are considered fully vaccinated.

The 4,010 tests done in the province Tuesday hiked the total to date to 1,074,354.