COVID-19 in Sask.: 3 more deaths, 173 new cases Saturday

The province reported 173 new cases of COVID-19 and three more deaths from the illness in Saskatchewan Saturday.

There are now 1,745 active cases of COVID-19 in the province. Since the start of the pandemic, there have been a total of 78,567 cases and 866 deaths from the illness, according to the province's dashboard.

The seven-day average of new COVID-19 case numbers is 154, compared to 203 a week ago.

As of Saturday, 199 people are in Saskatchewan hospitals with COVID-19, including 51 in intensive care in the province. Of the 199 in hospital, 138 are not fully vaccinated, the dashboard says.

One of the Saskatchewan ICU patients who was being treated out-of-province has been repatriated since Friday, leaving 21 Saskatchewan ICU patients being treated out-of-province.

The new cases reported Saturday are in the following zones:

Residence information is pending for six new cases.

Saskatoon now has the highest number of active cases (389), followed by Regina (340) and the central east zone (237).

Nearly a third (29.5 per cent) of the new cases involve people age 11 or younger, Saturday's update said.

The update also said 52.5 per cent of new cases among people eligible for vaccination (age 12 and up) were fully vaccinated.

There have been an additional 2,105 COVID-19 tests done since Friday's update. More than 2,000 tests have been performed each day since Nov. 3.

There were also 3,601 more vaccine doses administered, including 1,041 first doses. There are now 807,319 people in Saskatchewan who have been fully vaccinated.