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The number of people with COVID-19 in Saskatchewan hospitals reached its highest level in more than three months Friday.
In its daily update, the provincial government said there were 342 patients with COVID in hospital. That’s the most since Oct. 12, when there were 348 COVID-related hospitalizations.
The total reported Friday included 308 inpatients and 34 people in intensive care units, with two of those in pediatric or neonatal ICUs.
There were 10 more people admitted to hospitals in the Saskatoon region since Thursday’s report, raising that record total to 161. Seven more cases were reported in hospitals in the Regina zone for a total of 80.
The province also reported 1,392 new cases and 1,111 recoveries.
As of Thursday, Saskatchewan had a rate of 756 cases per 100,000 people over the past week — more than twice the national average of 339. Only Prince Edward Island’s rate of 1,033 was higher than that of Saskatchewan among the provinces.
Chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam said during a media conference Friday that multiple indicators suggest the Omicron wave of the pandemic has peaked at the national level.
Earlier this week, Dr. Saqib Shahab — Saskatchewan’s chief medical health officer — said Regina and Saskatoon would reach their peak this week, with the rest of the province to follow soon after.
There were 330 new cases reported in the Regina region Friday, an increase of 135 from the previous day. The 302 cases announced in the Saskatoon zone were 131 fewer than Thursday’s report.
The cases in the Regina zone were detected in 709 reported tests, meaning 46.5 per cent of those tests returned a positive result.
Two more Saskatchewan residents — one in the 60-to-79 age group and one over the age of 80 — died due to the virus. To date, the province has reported the deaths of 987 people due to COVID.
A look at the numbers
In addition to the cases in the Regina and Saskatoon areas, there also were cases in the southeast (129), central-east (116), north-central (95), south-central (82), northwest (54), far northeast (31), southwest (28), northeast (27), central-west (26), far northwest (11) and far north-central (six) zones.
The hometowns of 155 new cases weren’t immediately known.
According to the government, Friday’s cases comprised 727 people who were more than 14 days removed from their second dose of a COVID vaccine, 344 people for whom more than 14 days had passed since their booster, 270 individuals who were unvaccinated or less than three weeks from their first dose, and 51 who had received their first dose or were less than 21 days from their second dose.
Twenty positive cases detected outside the province were added to its total, which stood at 115,405.
There have been 101,733 recoveries announced. Active cases climbed to 12,685, ending a run of four straight days in which that number had fallen.
Of the inpatient hospitalizations, 163 were incidental COVID infections, 129 were for a COVID-related illness and 16 were undetermined.
The ICU admissions included 27 for COVID (including one of the PICU/NICU cases) and seven (including the other PICU/NICU case) were for incidental COVID infections.
The 2,076 vaccinations done included 693 first shots and 1,383 second shots. So far in Saskatchewan, more than 1.85 million first and second doses have been administered.