REGINA — Saskatchewan has released it's COVID-19 data for the first time since Thursday, recording a total of 908 new cases identified over the holiday weekend since Dec. 23.
The province advised residents on Dec. 20 that the COVID-19 dashboard would not be updated between Dec. 24-27, due to the holidays. New data from that period has now been shared with the public, as part of the daily update that includes numbers for Dec. 28.
Saskatchewan had previously reported 194 new positive cases on Dec. 23, which was notably a record high single-day increase for the province at the time.
In the province’s update today, active cases are shown to have almost doubled in a five-day period, rising to 1,428 from 789 on Dec. 23.
The daily record for new cases was broken twice during this period, with the daily breakdown showing that 209 new positive cases were reported for Dec. 24, 245 cases on Dec. 25, 155 cases on Dec. 26, 137 cases on Dec. 27 and 162 cases on Dec. 28.
Daily case increases were the only data set broken down individually on the dashboard, with other statistics including new tests and vaccinations administered reported as a lump number on today's date.
Total recoveries over the same period were 348, and two additional deaths due to COVID-19 occurred, bringing the overall total number of deaths to 947 individuals.
Of the new cases, 824 have screened positive as the Omicron variant. According to the last weekly update issued by provincial health officials on Dec. 20, testing had identified 82 cases confirmed to be Omicron at that time.
Fifty-five of the province's variant cases are pending residence information, but of the remaining 729 cases, nearly 40 per cent are in Saskatoon and 27 per cent are in Regina.
The other 33 per cent of Omicron cases are located throughout the remainder of Saskatchewan’s zones. At least one Omicron case has been identified in each zone, with the exception of Far North Central.
Hospitalizations are now at 80 individuals, down from 87 on Dec. 23. Of those patients, 64 are receiving inpatient care and 16 patients are in ICUs. None of these hospitalized individuals have tested positive for the Omicron variant, and 58.8 per cent of those in hospital are not fully vaccinated.
Full vaccination in individuals older than five years of age has reached 76 per cent, with 277,705 booster or third doses delivered across the province.
Public health delivered 3,893 vaccine doses between Dec. 22-28, and processed a total of 11,397 COVID-19 tests.
Updates to the province’s COVID-19 dashboard will continue tomorrow and on Thursday, but will not be occurring between Jan. 1-3, following statutory holidays set by the government.
Daily case updates will resume again on Jan. 4.
Message from provincial officials
In press appearances on Dec. 21, chief medical health officer Dr. Saqib Shahab and Premier Scott Moe said that residents should assume that Omicron is present in their community and exercise caution over the holidays.
Shahab said that the province’s medical experts anticipate seeing Omicron become the predominant strain spreading in Saskatchewan through January.
“The actions we take over the holidays will determine if and when we will see a surge,” said Shahab, before Christmas weekend.
In a video shared to social media on Dec. 23, Premier Scott Moe once again encouraged Saskatchewan residents to gather in safe numbers, seek a booster vaccine and utilize at-home rapid testing regularly.
Moe said that the province has not yet introduced further public health orders to address the potential surge in cases on the horizon, in the interest of protecting the “personal freedoms” of individuals.
“So far, Omicron cases around the world have been milder than earlier strains of COVID. That has also been the case here in Saskatchewan,” said Moe, in the video shared.
Moe said that while case counts are rising, hospitalizations are not, indicating that there are less serious cases occurring in the province.
“We should be concerned about Omicron, but not panicked,” said Moe. “COVID is going to be with us for a while, but we can all live our lives safely and do the things we enjoy if we are careful.”
He also said that officials are discussing the possibility of more restrictions, which may be announced this week.
“We have not ruled out some additional measures around large gathering sizes, potentially being introduced in the next week,” said Moe.
Saskatchewan is the only province in Canada that has not implemented public health orders addressing gathering limits or public contact, to curb transmission of Omicron.
