COVID-19 in Sask.: New records set for highest daily cases, hospitalizations, ICU admissions

The province has set multiple new records for COVID-19 on Sunday, according to the province's dashboard, and a new death was reported.

There are 543 new cases as of Sunday, which is the highest daily increase since the pandemic started. The previous record of 509 was set on Sept. 14.

There are 249 people in hospital, which is also a new record. The previous record was 238 set on Feb. 3.

Out of the 249 people in hospital, 55 are in intensive care. That's the highest number of COVID-19 patients in ICUs that the province has had. The second most was 52 on April 23, 2021.

Sunday's update says 190 of hospitalized people are not fully vaccinated.

The seven-day average of new COVID-19 case numbers is 484, or 40.2 new cases per 100,000. That's the highest this year and on the province's dashboard, which has data dating back to August 2020 in this category. 

Saturday's new cases are located in the following zones:

• Far northwest, 26.
• Far northeast, 15.
• Northwest:, 64.
• North central, 70.
• Northeast, 48.
• Saskatoon, 149.
• Central west, eight.
• Central east, 28.
• Regina, 47.
• Southwest, 24.
• South central, 19.
• Southeast, 26.

There are also 19 new cases with pending residence information.

Over one-third of new cases are in the 19 years and under age category, the update said.

There are 4,586 cases considered active. The most are in the Saskatoon (1,114), North West (670) and North Central (587) regions.

The additional COVID-19 death brings the province's total to 639.

Another 4,522 vaccinations have been administered, including 2,649 first doses and 1,873 second doses.

Vaccinations have been rising since Sept. 14 when the province reported 664 new vaccinations. A total of 717,871 people are fully vaccinated in Saskatchewan, which is up from 680,397 a month ago. 

There were 3,911 reported tests in Sunday's update, compared to 4,468 on Saturday.