Sask. adds 896 COVID-19 cases over holiday weekend; 676 more Omicron cases

COVID-19 debated at the Legislature WATCH: On day two of Spring Session at the Saskatchewan Legislature COVID-19 was again front and centre. Allison Bamford explains.

Saskatchewan added 896 new COVID-19 cases between Dec. 24 and Dec. 28.

The province also reported that 824 Omicron cases have been identified in total – up from 148 on Dec. 23. As of Tuesday, 66 are confirmed and 758 are probable Omicron.

Of the cases screened positive for Omicron, 39.8 per cent are in the Saskatoon zone while 27.3 per cent are in the Regina zone, the province said. Those percentages equate to approximately 328 cases in Saskatoon and 225 in Regina. Exact case counts in Regina and Saskatoon were not provided by the government.

The remaining 271 Omicron cases are spread across the remaining zones. Every zone has at least one Omicron case, except the Far North Central, according to the province.

Broken down by day, there were 205 new cases on Dec. 24, 241 on Dec. 25, 151 on Dec. 26, 137 on Dec. 27, 162 on Dec. 28, according to the government.

There are 1,438 cases considered active – the highest count since Nov. 12.

The new cases are located in the Far North West (two), Far North Central (zero), Far North East (15), North West (44), North Central (37), North East (four), Saskatoon (262), Central West (20), Central East (75), Regina (229), South West (21), South Central (63) and South East (56) zones.

An additional 23 Saskatchewan residents tested out-of-province were added to the case count.

Of the 162 new cases for Dec. 28, 85 were unvaccinated while 77 were fully vaccinated.

There are 80 people in hospital related to COVID-19 in Saskatchewan, including 16 in intensive care. Of those patients, 47 or 58.8 per cent are not fully vaccinated.

Two more deaths were reported Tuesday, bringing the province’s total to 947.

The seven-day average of daily new cases is 174, or 14.4 per 100,000 population.

As of Tuesday, the province said 83 per cent of residents 12 years and older and 76 per cent of residents five years and older are fully vaccinated.