Another 227 infections, 13 more deaths in province

Thirteen more Saskatchewan people have died after testing positive for COVID-19, while more than 2,500 people received their first or second vaccine dose.

Nine of the people who died were over the age of 80, with six from Saskatoon and one each from the Far North East, North Central and South East zones.

Three others were in their 70s and were from the Far North Central, North Central and Saskatoon zones. One person was in their 60s from Saskatoon, according to a news release.

This brings the province's death toll to 239.

Saskatchewan also reported 227 new cases and 816 recoveries, lowering the number of active cases to 3,099. The seven-day average of daily new cases is now 286, or 23.6 new cases per 100,000 population.

There are currently 197 people in hospital, with 31 in intensive care.

Another 2,548 people also received either their first or second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine on Wednesday, but the province expects the pace of vaccine delivery to drop because of federal supply challenges.

“Saskatchewan now has one of the highest rates of vaccinations administered in Canada, but the pace of vaccinations will slow in the coming days with the supply of vaccines running short and no new vaccine deliveries from the federal government scheduled next week,” the province said in the release.

This comes days after Pfizer announced it would be slowing production of its vaccine as it makes changes to its manufacturing processes that will boost its production.

Canada is not expected to receive any Pfizer doses next week, although federal officials said in a news conference Thursday that they still expect to receive enough doses for all adults to be vaccinated by the end of September 2021.

Maj- Gen. Dany Fortin, the military commander overseeing vaccine rollout for the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), told reporters some provinces will be disproportionately affected by the delivery disruption, but said the federal government would “rebalance” allotments in the future to make up for the imbalance. He did not specify which provinces would be most affected.

A total of 29,781 doses of the vaccine have been administered in Saskatchewan to date, which the province said is 91 per cent of the doses it has received.

The most recent doses were administered in Regina (800), Saskatoon (400), North Central (185), North West (418), Far North East (30), Far North Central (10), Central East (175) and South East (530). No data were reported on Wednesday for the Far North West and North East zones.

Nearly 3,000 Pfizer doses were received on Tuesday, which are currently being given to priority populations in the Battleford area, Lloydminster, Regina and Fort Qu'appelle.

More than 40 long-term care homes across the province have also now received their first doses. This includes Saskatoon, Prince Albert and a range of communities across rural and northern Saskatchewan, with Regina being completed Thursday.

The new cases are located in Saskatoon (62), Regina (50), the Far North West (14), Far North Central (6), Far North East (7), North West (18), North Central (21), North East (11), Central West (4), Central East (12), South West (2), South Central (4) and South East (12) zones.

There were 2,764 COVID-19 tests processed on Wednesday.