There are 205 new cases of COVID-19 to report in Saskatchewan on April 8, bringing the provincial total to 35,376 cases.

There are two new deaths to report today. One death was reported in the 70-79 age group from the South East zone. One death was reported in the 80+ age group from the Saskatoon zone.

The new cases are located in the Far North West (4), Far North Central (1), Far North East (4), North West (3), North Central (4), North East (5), Saskatoon (32), Central West (1), Central East (9), Regina (91), South West (6), South Central (21), and South East (23) zones. One (1) new case has pending residence information. Three (3) cases with pending residence information have been assigned to the Regina zone. There are a total of 32,788 recoveries and 2,141 cases are considered active.

Two hundred and six (206) people are in hospital. One hundred and sixty-five (165) people are receiving inpatient care: Far North West (2), Far North East (1), North West (9), North Central (3), North East (1), Saskatoon (41), Central East (14), Regina (82), South Central (3) and South East (9). Forty-one (41) people are in intensive care: North Central (4), Saskatoon (7), Central East (3), Regina (25) and South Central (2).

The seven-day average of daily new cases is 226 (18.5 new cases per 100,000). A chart comparing today's average to data collected over the past several months is available on the Government of Saskatchewan website.

There were 3,151 COVID-19 tests processed in Saskatchewan on April 7, 2021.

To date, 693,601 COVID-19 tests have been processed in Saskatchewan. As of April 6, 2021, when other provincial and national numbers were available, Saskatchewan's per capita rate was 581,627 tests performed per million population. The national rate was 748,724 tests performed per million population.

As of April 8, 2,948 variants of concern have been identified by screening in Saskatchewan, reported in the Far North West (2), Far North East (4), North West (6), North Central (21), Saskatoon (189), Central West (12), Central East (64), Regina (2,107), South West (18), South Central (260), and South East (246) zones. There are 19 cases with residence pending.

These were previously reported as "presumptive positives" but all screening tests will be considered confirmed VOCs for the purposes of public reporting and contact investigations.

There are zero (0) new lineage results being reported today. Of the 951 VOCs with lineages identified by whole genome sequencing in Saskatchewan, 943 are B.1.1.1.7 (UK) and eight are B.1.351 (SA). The Regina zone accounts for 802 (84 percent) of the VOC cases with confirmed lineage reported in Saskatchewan.

Please note that these VOC may have been initially identified via means other than screening (i.e. selection for whole-genome sequencing without screening) and that whole-genome sequencing results to identify lineage are included in the screening results.

Confirmed variant of concern cases may appear in both columns on the website, depending on testing for that case. Adding the cases identified by screening and those that have received whole genome sequencing may result in double-counting individual cases.

Further statistics on the total number of cases among healthcare workers, breakdowns of total cases by source of infection, age, sex and region, total tests to date, per capita testing rate and current numbers of confirmed variants of concern can be found on the Government of Saskatchewan website.

Vaccines Reported

An additional 10,437 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been given in Saskatchewan, bringing the total number of vaccines administered in the province to 244,646. This is the highest daily doses administered to date.

The 10,437 doses of COVID-19 vaccine reported today were administered to residents living in the following regions: Far North West (34), Far North Central (2), Far North East (21), North West (924), North Central (925), North East (1,444), Saskatoon (3,364), Central West (102), Central East (791), Regina (1,822), South West (207), South Central (75) and South East (503). There were 223 doses administered with zone of residence pending.

Please note: Variants of concern (VOC) are beginning to rise across southern Saskatchewan, particularly in the Moose Jaw and Weyburn areas. Residents in these areas are urged to adhere to the best personal protective measures.

All Saskatchewan residents should monitor active cases in their area and adjust their activity accordingly. Active and new case information for each area can be found on the Government of Saskatchewan website.