There are 154 new cases of COVID-19 to report in Saskatchewan on March 1, bringing the provincial total to 28,801 cases. There are no new COVID cases and no active cases in the Weyburn area, with 23 active cases in the southeast region.
No additional Saskatchewan residents who tested positive for COVID-19 have died for the second day in a row.
The new cases are located in the Far North West (12), Far North Central (3), Far North East (5), Northwest (14), North Central (10), Northeast (2), Saskatoon (33), Central West (1), Central East (14), Regina (53) and Southeast (2) zones. Five cases are pending residence information. Two cases with pending residence information were assigned to the North Central zone.
There are a total of 26,865 recoveries, including 146 new recoveries as of March 1, and 1,551 cases are considered active.
There are 151 people in hospital, and 130 people are receiving inpatient care: Far North West (4), Far North East (2), Northwest (12), North Central (14), Northeast (1), Saskatoon (49), Central West (1), Central East (7), Regina (33), South Central (3) and Southeast (4). Twenty-one people are in intensive care: North West (1), Saskatoon (11) and Regina (9).
Vaccine Delivery
There were 386 COVID-19 vaccine doses administered on Feb. 28 in Saskatchewan, bringing the total number of vaccines administered in the province to 79,289.
The 356 doses were administered in the Northwest (124) and North Central (262) zones. Data has been updated to include an additional 677 doses administered in the Far North East (22), Northwest (212), Central East (120) and Southeast (323) zones on Feb. 25-27.
There were 1,741 COVID-19 tests processed in Saskatchewan on Feb. 28, with 52 new tests in the southeast region.
To date, 578,066 COVID-19 tests have been processed in Saskatchewan. As of Feb. 27, when other provincial and national numbers were available, Saskatchewan's per capita rate was 486,243 tests performed per million population. The national rate was 642,693 tests performed per million population.
The seven-day average of daily new cases is 143 (11.6 new cases per 100,000), the lowest seven-day average since early November. A chart comparing today's average to data collected over the past several months is available on the Government of Saskatchewan website.
Please visit https://dashboard.saskatchewan.ca/health-wellness/covid-19/seven-day-average-of-new-covid-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 and the per capita testing rate can be found on the Government of Saskatchewan website.
Variant of Concern Testing at RRPL
The Roy Romanow Provincial Laboratory (RRPL) has completed the validation process in order to support whole genome sequencing. This test determines that a positive COVID-19 case is a variant of concern, as well as what type of variant. Starting immediately, the RRPL has the capacity to test up to 192 samples per week.
In order to monitor for variants of concern, the RRPL will continue to focus whole genome sequencing testing on COVID positive results linked to international travel, declared outbreaks and cases of unexpected severe illness, as well as a random sampling of confirmed cases.
The province will continue to send up to 120 samples per week to the National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg to ensure a larger sample size.
Assess Your Risk and Get Tested
The Government of Saskatchewan continues to recommend against all non-essential travel. International travellers must abide by federal testing and quarantine measures. If you choose to travel interprovincially, get tested as soon as you return to Saskatchewan and plan for a follow up test seven days later.
The presence of new variants across Canada means an elevated risk of bringing more transmissible strains of COVID-19 home with you. While you cannot test your way out of travel risks, testing is the best tool available to protect your family, friends and all residents of Saskatchewan against COVID-19 if you have travelled.
You do not need to be experiencing symptoms in order to have COVID-19. Find testing options near you at https://www.saskatchewan.ca/government/health-care-administration-and-provider-resources/treatment-procedures-and-guidelines/emerging-public-health-issues/2019-novel-coronavirus/testing-information.
Enforcing Public Health Measures
Enforcement of public health orders is permitted under The Public Health Act, 1994. Public health inspectors will be supported in their efforts to ticket violators quickly to ensure that businesses and events are brought into compliance as quickly as possible, in addition to the enforcement efforts that have been undertaken by police agencies throughout the province.
