Latest COVID update Jan. 24: 909 new cases, active case total drops

For the first time in more than a month, the number of active COVID-19 cases being reported in Saskatchewan has fallen.

In its daily update Monday, the Ministry of Health said there were 1,449 new recoveries, 909 new cases and three deaths. The active case count fell by 537 from Sunday’s update to 12,753.

The last time the province reported a decrease in active case numbers was Dec. 21.

The number of new cases announced only includes results of tests that have been done by health-care officials or test results that have been reported to public health.

The new case total is the lowest since 537 were announced Jan. 5. It’s also the first time there haven’t been more than 1,000 new cases reported since Jan. 13.

The total announced Monday followed a record-setting day Sunday, when the province reported 1,629 new cases. That broke the previous daily mark established Saturday, when 1,483 new cases were announced.

The three COVID-related deaths involved two people between the ages of 60 and 79 and one person from the 80-and-over age group. The Regina, Saskatoon and southeast regions each reported one fatality.

To date, 975 Saskatchewan residents have died due to COVID.

A look at the numbers

The new cases were reported in the Regina (281), Saskatoon (235), south-central (86), central-east (69), southwest (40), southeast (33), northwest (30), central-west (21), far northeast (16), north-central (15), northeast (nine) and far northwest (two) zones. The hometowns of 72 cases are pending.

There were 702 tests done by health-care workers in the Regina region, meaning 40 per cent of the tests returned a positive result. The test positivity rate in the province was 31.8 per cent.

Six people who tested positive outside of the province were added to Saskatchewan’s total, which stood at 110,399. There have been 96,671 recoveries announced to date.

There were 262 people with COVID in the province’s health-care facilities, with 29 of those in intensive care.

The 233 inpatients included 102 incidental COVID infections, 92 people who went to hospital for a COVID-related illness, and 39 whose reason for seeking treatment has yet to be determined.

The ICU admissions include 21 people who had a COVID-related illness, five who had incidental COVID infections and three whose status was undetermined.

The ICU total also included three individuals in pediatric or neonatal ICUs.

There were 1,984 doses of COVID vaccine administered in the province, comprising 539 first shots and 1,445 second shots.

To date, nearly 1.87 million COVID shots have been given in Saskatchewan, with more than 887,000 of them second shots.