Vaccines now in short supply throughout province
As the COVID-19 vaccine supply slows to a trickle in Saskatchewan, six more people have died and 534 new cases of the disease were reported over the weekend.
A total of 260 new cases of COVID-19 were reported Sunday, bringing the provincial total to 22,177 cases.
There are 253 Saskatchewan residents who have now died from the disease. Three of them who tested positive for COVID -19 died Sunday after three died Saturday.
Two deaths reported Sunday were in the Regina zone — one in the 60-69 age group and the other in the 80-plus age group. The was in the 60-69 age group from the Far North East zone. One person who died Saturday was in their 50s from the North Central zone, one was in their 60s from the Far North East zone and one was over the age of 80 and in the Far North West zone.
After administering another 1,110 COVID-19 vaccine doses Friday and 642 doses Saturday, the provincial government has now exceeded the doses it has received to date — due to efficiencies in drawing extra doses from vials of vaccine — with 33,039 now given out.
The next Pfizer vaccine shipments aren't expected until Feb. 1, when Saskatchewan is set to receive 5,825 doses of the Pfizer vaccine as well as 6,500 doses of the Moderna vaccine. It also expects 7,100 Moderna doses on Feb. 22.
Canada is not expected to receive any Pfizer doses this week after Pfizer announced it would be slowing production of its vaccine as it makes changes to its manufacturing processes that it hopes will boost production.
“This much is clear: we will need to revise our vaccine rollout plan in the coming weeks because of this latest delay, and we need the federal government to pick up the pace of vaccine deliveries in the weeks ahead,” Premier Scott Moe said last week.
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.
The doses were administered Saturday in Saskatoon (148), North West (261) and South East (233) zones. On Friday, vaccines were given in Regina (148), Saskatoon (34), Far North Central (nine), Far North East (10), North East (56), North West (449), Central East (320) and South East (84) zones.
There are currently 196 people are in hospital with 32 in intensive care.
There are 164 people are receiving in-patient care: Far North West (4), North West (13), North Central (23), North East (1), Saskatoon (68), Central West (3), Central East (8), Regina (36), South West (1), South Central (1) and South East (6). The ICU totals include North West (2), North Central (4), Saskatoon (15), Central East (1), Regina (9) and South Central (1).
There were 2,684 COVID-19 tests processed in Saskatchewan on Saturday and 3,252 COVID-19 tests processed Friday.
A total of 18,673 individuals have recovered and 3,251 cases are considered active.
New cases reported Sunday are located in the Far North West (26), Far North Central (1), Far North East (3), North West (52), North Central (14), North East (9), Saskatoon (72), Central West (6), Central East (11), Regina (42), South West (1), South Central (4) and South East (17) zones. Two new cases have pending residence information.
Eight cases with pending residence information were assigned to the Far North West (1), North West (4) and North Central (3) zones.