Latest COVID update Dec. 9: 62 new cases, active cases up

For the first time in nearly a week, the number of active COVID-19 cases in Saskatchewan rose Thursday.

The Ministry of Health reported there were 622 active cases, 13 more than the previous day. The number had decreased every day since Dec. 3, when it was 744.

The province reported 62 new cases and 49 recoveries Thursday. There weren’t any COVID-related deaths announced.

The number of hospitalizations dropped by six from the previous day to 118, but the number of COVID patients in intensive care units dropped by only one to 30. The number of COVID ICU patients hasn’t been under 30 since it was 27 on Sept. 6.

One Saskatchewan resident is still being treated in an Ontario ICU.

According to the government’s COVID dashboard, the four cases suspected of being the Omicron variant have been confirmed by whole genome sequencing.

A look at the numbers

The new cases were reported in the Saskatoon (14), Regina (12), southeast (10), north-central (seven), central-east (seven), south-central (four), northwest (three), central-west (two), far northwest (one) and southwest (one) zones. One case has pending residence information.

There were 34 unvaccinated people among the new cases, including 14 children between the ages of five and 11, 11 individuals in their 30s and 10 people in their 40s.

The new cases also included 28 fully vaccinated individuals, nine of whom were in their 30s.

The seven-day average of new COVID cases stood at 60, or 5.0 per 100,000 people.

As of Thursday, 81,572 cases of COVID had been reported in Saskatchewan since March of 2020 along with 80,014 recoveries and 936 deaths.

There were 2,350 vaccine doses administered in the province in the latest reporting period, including 1,520 first shots. That latter total included 1,169 shots for kids between the ages of five and 11.

To date, more than 1.769 million shots have been given in Saskatchewan, including 842,292 second shots.