Saskatchewan health officials reported 31 new cases of COVID-19 in North Central on Thursday.
This was among a total of 158 cases reported in the province.
North Central had the most cases reported on Thursday.
There were no deaths reported in North Central but two deaths reported elsewhere in the province. Deaths were reported in the South West and South Central, there are now 594 deaths related to COVID-19 in the province. Age groups for the deaths are not available.
Of the 53,004 reported COVID-19 cases in Saskatchewan, 1,602 are considered active.
North Central 2, which is Prince Albert, has 131 active cases. North Central 1, which includes communities such as Christopher Lake, Candle Lake and Meath Park, has 69 active cases and North Central 3 has 12 active cases.
One case with pending location was added to North Central.
One resident tested out of province was also added to North Central.
According to the province, 36.7 per cent of new cases are in the 20 to 39 years age category.
There are currently 104 COVID-19 patients in hospital across the province, 68 of which are not fully vaccinated. There are currently 85 patients receiving in patient care and 19 in intensive care. North Central has 23 patients in hospital.
The current seven-day average for new cases is 169, or 14.0 cases per 100,000 population.
Another 142 recoveries were reported on Friday, bringing the total number of recoveries to 50,808.
Since the start of the pandemic, 11,772 cases are from the North area (4,995 North West, 4,959 North Central and 1,818 North East).
There were 3,271 COVID-19 tests processed in Saskatchewan on Wednesday. As of August 26, there have been 1,010,223 COVID-19 tests performed in Saskatchewan.
There were 2,445 doses of COVID-19 vaccine administered in Saskatchewan bringing the total number of vaccines administered in the province to 1,466,779.
There were 145 doses administered in the North Central Zone reported on Thursday. Doses were also administered in the adjacent North East, North West, Far North East, Far North West, Central West, Central East, South West, South East, South Central, Regina and Saskatoon.
According to the province 45,508 people in North Central are fully vaccinated.
665 total variants of concern identified in North Central
There are 665 confirmed variants of concern (VOC) cases identified by the province in the North Central zone as of August 26.
This was among 12,441 variants of concern identified by screening in Saskatchewan to date. Other regions with identified cases included Regina, Saskatoon, Far North East, Central West, Central East, South West, South Central and South East. There are currently 76 cases with area of residency pending.
There are 86 variants identified in the adjacent North East zone.
Regina led the province with 4,835 identified VOCs.
Of the 9,046 VOCs with lineages identified by whole genome sequencing in Saskatchewan, 7,106 are Alpha (B.1.1.7), 10 are Beta (B.1.351), 456 are Gamma (P.1) and 1,424 are Delta (B.1.617.2).
