Saskatchewan health officials reported one death related to COVID-19 on Friday.
The death was in the North West zone and in the 80 plus age group.
The number of deaths related to COVID-19 is now 571.
The province also reported five new cases of COVID-19 in North Central, which includes Prince Albert, on Friday.
This was among a total of 36 cases reported in the province.
Four additional cases were also reassigned to the totals in North Central.
North Central 2, which is Prince Albert, has 19 active cases. North Central 1, which includes communities such as Christopher Lake, Candle Lake and Meath Park, has 11 active cases and North Central 3 has two active cases.
There are currently 61 COVID-19 patients in hospital across the province. Of the 51 reported as receiving in patient care, six are in North Central. Of the 10 people reported as being in intensive care, two are in North Central.
The current seven-day average for new cases is 45, or 3.7 cases per 100,000 population. Of the 49,198 reported COVID-19 cases in Saskatchewan 403 are considered active.
Another 57 recoveries were reported on Friday, bringing the total number of recoveries to 48,224.
Since the start of the pandemic, 10,844 cases are from the North area (4,711 North West, 4,528 North Central and 1,605 North East).
There were 2,544 COVID-19 tests processed in Saskatchewan yesterday. As of July 9, there have been 932,412 COVID-19 tests performed in Saskatchewan.
There were 12,678 doses of COVID-19 vaccine administered in Saskatchewan over the past two days bringing the total number of vaccines administered in the province to 1,273,245. Over half a million Saskatchewan residents are now fully vaccinated.
There were 836 doses administered in the North Central Zone reported on Friday. 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.
There were 396 doses administered with zone of residence information pending,
According to the province, 72 per cent of those 12 and over have received their first dose and 53 per cent of those 12 and over are fully vaccinated.
Full knowledge of Hatchet Lake outbreak expected to be known next week
The province said Friday that in response to the outbreak at Hatchet Lake, rapid testing is being conducted to support case contact identification.
Data entry of those results into the provincial system has been delayed while staff work on the immediate outbreak response. It is anticipated the case data entry will continue throughout the weekend.
They explained that while Hatchet Lake falls under the jurisdiction of the Northern Inter-Tribal Health Agency, the SHA has reached out to offer assistance to the local health teams to support the outbreak response.
Currently, voluntary mass testing is underway as part of active case finding, vaccinations are being offered door-to-door, and local public health officials and community leaders are actively working together on communicating risk, preventative measures and the importance of vaccinations.
The Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency has also been engaged and is coordinating with the federal government in potentially securing further resources.
638 total variants of concern identified in North Central
There are now 638 confirmed variants of concern (VOC) cases identified by the province in the North Central zone as of July 9.
This was among 12,262 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 82 cases with area of residency pending.
There are still 80 variants identified in the adjacent North East zone.
Regina led the province with 4,822 identified VOCs.
There were 80 new lineage result reported today. Of the 7,667 VOCs with lineages identified by whole genome sequencing in Saskatchewan, 6,911 are Alpha (B.1.1.7), 10 are Beta (B.1.351), 398 are Gamma (P.1) and 348 are Delta (B.1.617.2).
13 active cases of COVID-19 in youth in North Central
On Thursday the province released the updated numbers on COVID-19 cases in youth. The total active cases in youth provincially in all locations are 138. Seven have no known location and 131 have a location reported.
The province releases the update on the numbers each Thursday.
Currently in the North Central zone, which includes Prince Albert, there are 13 active cases in youth. Last week there were 86 tests performed across the North Central zone.
North Central 2, which is Prince Albert, has 11 active cases in youth.
North Central 1, which includes communities such as Christopher Lake, Candle Lake and Meath Park, has two active cases and North Central 3 has no active cases.
Cumulative tests performed since Sept. 7, 2020 in the North Central zone is 10,086.
Provincially there is a 5.0 per cent test positivity rate in youth.
There were 1,631 tests performed in total in the province in the last week.
The cumulative number of tests performed since Sept. 7, 2020 is 153,443.
