Saskatchewan set a record for daily COVID-19 cases Saturday.
There were 1,483 cases reported by the Ministry of Health, breaking the record of 1,427 set Jan. 16.
It was the ninth straight day Saskatchewan had more than 1,000 new cases.
The number of COVID-related hospitalizations climbed by 29 to 244, representing a 180 per cent increase over the past month. On Dec. 23, there were 87 people with COVID in Saskatchewan hospitals.
The hospitalizations included 218 inpatients and 26 people in intensive care.
Of the inpatient admissions, 90 were COVID-related illnesses, 97 were incidental COVID infections, and 31 had not yet been determined.
The ICU cases comprised 20 COVID-related patients (including one in a pediatric ICU), five incidental COVID infections (including an individual in a PICU) and one individual whose infection wasn’t determined.
Three deaths due to the virus were reported in the province Saturday, increasing the total to date to 972.
A look at the numbers
The new cases were reported in the Saskatoon (362), Regina (298), southeast (151), central-east (131), south-central (102), northwest (77), northeast (56), north-central (53), southwest (50), far northeast (31), central-west (30), far northwest (22) and far north-central (nine) zones. The hometowns of 111 cases were pending.
The cases in the Saskatoon region were detected among 953 tests done by health-care officials, meaning 38.0 per cent of the tests done returned a positive result. The Regina region (298 cases on 794 tests) had a rate of 37.5 per cent.
The cases provincewide comprised 809 fully vaccinated people (who had gone more than 14 days since their second dose), 311 who were fully vaccinated and more than 14 days from their booster dose, 284 individuals who were unvaccinated or were fewer than 21 days after their first dose, and 79 who had received their first dose or were less than 21 days from their second dose.
There were 31 Saskatchewan residents who tested positive out of the province added Saturday to the Saskatchewan total, which stood at 107,842.
The seven-day average was 1,292, or 107.3 per 100,000.
There were 1,093 recoveries reported, increasing that total in Saskatchewan to date to 94,253. The active case count rose to 12,617.
The ministry reported 2,878 doses of COVID vaccine were administered, increasing the total to more than 1.84 million so far.