Government revises latest death tally

■ SOME COVID NUMBERS WERE NOT AVAILABLE WEDNESDAY DUE PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT TECHNICAL ISSUES.

Four more Saskatchewan residents who contracted COVID-19 have died, but three deaths have been removed from the province's total pandemic tally.

Ministry of Health spokeswoman Jennifer Graham said two of the deaths removed from the tally were reported in December and the other was reported earlier this month.

Graham explained in an email that physicians are required to report the death of anyone diagnosed with COVID-19 and the province reports the numbers on a daily basis.

“In the case of three deaths that occurred in December and January, further investigation has determined that while these residents did have a COVID -19 diagnosis, it was not the cause of death,” the email said. “Therefore, they have now been removed from public reporting as a COVID death.”

Two of the three deaths removed from the tally were recorded in the Regina zone; the other was in the south east zone.

It's believed to be the first time the province has removed deaths from the COVID-19 total.

The new adjusted total for deaths was reported as 226 — one more than the total reported on Tuesday. Of these, 106 were reported in December and 73 were recorded this month.

Saskatchewan's 234 new reported cases on Wednesday were eclipsed by 694 recoveries, which resulted in a steep drop of 454 active cases to 3,702, the lowest since Jan. 10.

Saskatchewan has led the country in active cases per capita for more than a week with 354 cases per 100,000 people as of the end of Tuesday. Second-place Alberta was 100 cases behind, with a rate of 254; the national rate was 189.

One of the deaths reported on Wednesday was someone aged 60 to 69 in the Regina zone; one was aged 70 to 79 in the north central zone, and two were aged 80 or older — one in the Saskatoon zone and one in the south east zone.

The 234 new cases were determined from 2,559 tests, translating to a positivity rate of about nine per cent. It marked the lowest daily case count since Jan. 5, perhaps signalling the end of the post-holiday surge in cases that reached a peak of 412 new cases on Jan. 11.

Total cases diagnosed in the province rose to 21,112.

A technical glitch prevented the province from reporting data on hospitalizations, which stood at 207 on Tuesday. Of the new cases, 66 were recorded in the Saskatoon zone, followed by 27 in the far north west (Meadow Lake, La Loche) and 23 in the Regina zone.

The province is making a concerted effort to track hundreds of cases presumed to be recovered that have inflated the active case numbers. The province pursued the same correction in December as active cases reached their highest point.

“Starting today, the reporting database is being updated to reconcile a significant backlog in the number of recoveries and these will be reflected in the daily case statistics,” a news release said. “This adjustment will occur over the next few days.”

The Saskatoon zone continued to lead with 795 active cases, followed by the Regina zone with 575 actives and the north central (Prince Albert) with 442 actives.

The seven-day average of new daily cases dipped to 298.

Another 2,658 doses of COVID-19 vaccine were injected into people's arms, bringing the total vaccinations to 27,233.

First doses of the two-dose vaccines have been injected into people in all but three of the 13 zones used by the province to report COVID-19 case locations.