No additional deaths, 156 new cases of Covid-19 in Saskatchewan May 6

2,158 active cases, 173 in hospital, 41 in intensive care

May 6, 2021, 1:48 pm

Daily COVID-19 Statistics
There are 156 new cases of COVID-19 to report in Saskatchewan on May 6, bringing the provincial total to 42,376 cases.

There are 16 active cases in Central East 5, including the Esterhazy and Melville areas

There are 13 active cases in South East 2, including the Moosomin, Rocanville, Whitewood and Kipling areas.

There are 98 active cases in South East 4, including the Redvers, Carlyle, and Estevan areas.

No new deaths are reported today.

The new cases are located in the following zones: Far North West, 1; Far North East, 1; North West, 11; North Central, 31; North East, 11; Saskatoon, 10; Central East, 10; Regina, 40; South West, 5; South Central, 13; and South East, 22. One new case is pending residence information. Three cases with pending residence information have been assigned to the following zones: North West, 1; and North Central, 2.

Seventeen cases tested out of province were added to the North West, 3; North Central, 1; Central East, 2; Saskatoon, 9; South West, 1; South East, 1.

Recoveries total 39,717 and 2,158 cases are considered active.

There are 173 people in hospital. One hundred and thirty-two people are receiving inpatient care: Far North West, 1; Far North East, 1; North West, 8; North Central, 4; North East, 2; Saskatoon, 60; Central East, 3; Regina, 43; South West, 2; South Central, 3; and South East, 5. Forty-one people are in intensive care: North Central, 1; Saskatoon, 14; Central East, 2; Regina, 23; and South Central, 1.

The seven-day average of new COVID-19 case number is 216 (17.6 new cases per 100,000). A chart comparing today's average to data collected over the past few months is available at https://dashboard.saskatchewan.ca/health-wellness/covid-19/seven-day-average-of-new-covid-cases.

There were 3,494 COVID-19 tests processed in Saskatchewan on May 5, 2021.

To date, 789,619 COVID-19 tests have been processed in Saskatchewan. As of May 4, 2021, when other provincial and national numbers were available, Saskatchewan's per capita rate was 662,799 tests performed per million population. The national rate was 845,348.

As of May 5, 7,695 variants of concern have been identified by screening in Saskatchewan, reported in the following zones: Far North West, 171; Far North East, 2; North West, 249; North Central, 181; North East, 32; Saskatoon, 906; Central West, 87; Central East, 328; Regina, 4,047; South West, 236; South Central, 564; and South East, 775. There are 117 screened VOCs with residence pending.

There are 39 new lineage results reported today. Of the 3,004 VOCs with lineages identified by whole genome sequencing in Saskatchewan, 2,962 are B.1.1.1.7 (UK), 33 are P.1 (Brazilian) and nine are B.1.351 (SA). The Regina zone accounts for 1,877 (62 per cent) of the VOC cases with confirmed lineage reported in Saskatchewan.

Please note that these VOCs may have been initially identified by means other than screening (i.e. selection for whole genome sequencing without screening). 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 health care 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 at http://www.saskatchewan.ca/covid19-cases.

Be Safe and Limit Your Travel
Saskatchewan is a land of living skies and long highways. In a province as big as ours, travel is often required to meet the everyday needs of residents but we also start taking advantage of the warm weather to make get-away plans. At this time, please continue to minimize your travel. If residents are taking trips outside of their community, there are best practices to help reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission:
• Continue to follow the guidance of the current Public Health Orders.
• Manage as many retail or business needs in your home community as possible prior to any other destination.
• If you are travelling to or from a location with increased COVID-19 transmission, consider whether travel can be delayed.
• Where possible, travel in the same vehicle with members of your immediate household only.
• Travel directly from your home community to your destination with no unnecessary stops.
• Once you reach your destination, make as few stops as possible and minimize contact with residents of that community.
• Document date(s) of travel and the location of stops in case you need to refer to it later.
• While medical appointments are considered essential travel, access medical services in your home community only if possible.

General COVID-19 Information
General public inquiries may be directed to COVID19@health.gov.sk.ca.

Know your risk. Keep yourself and others safe: www.saskatchewan.ca/government/health-care-administration-and-provider-resources/treatment-procedures-and-guidelines/emerging-public-health-issues/2019-novel-coronavirus/about-covid-19/know-your-risk.