For the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic started, Saskatchewan has reached quadruple figures in new cases.
The Ministry of Health reported 1,170 new cases Friday, breaking the single-day record of 913 set a day earlier.
The new cases were detected in 3,778 tests, meaning 31.0 per cent of the tests done in the province returned a positive result.
That rate was higher in Regina, where 314 cases were found in 823 tests (38.2 per cent). Saskatoon also exceeded the provincial rate, as 259 new cases were detected there in 745 tests (34.8 per cent).
There were 105 people in Saskatchewan hospitals with COVID, an increase of five from Thursday’s update. That included 11 people in intensive care.
There weren’t any deaths reported Friday. To date, 961 Saskatchewan residents have died due to COVID.
The ministry said a total of 629 cases of the Omicron variant have been confirmed in Saskatchewan, but the province’s chief medical health officer, Dr. Saqib Shahab, said Thursday that 95 per cent of the new cases in the province are that variant.
A look at the numbers
New cases also were reported in the southeast (131), central-east (106), south-central (49), southwest (48), north-central (41), northwest (39), central-west (19), far northwest (15), northeast (14), northeast (eight) and far north-central (two) zones.
There also were 125 cases whose hometowns had yet to be determined.
Thirteen residents who tested positive outside the province were added to the Saskatchewan total, which now stands at 89,821.
The seven-day average of new COVID cases rose to 659, or 54.7 per 100,000 people.
There were 164 recoveries reported Friday, increasing that total to date to 82,606. The active case count rose by more than 1,000 to set a record for a second day, reaching 6,254.
The 2,508 vaccinations done in the province in the latest reporting period comprised 968 first shots and 1,540 second jabs.
To date, more than 1.81 million COVID vaccinations have been done in Saskatchewan, including 864,101 second shots.