COVID-19 in Sask.: Active cases lowest since Sept. 1, Canadian Armed Forces nurses begin work

The number of known active COVID-19 cases in Saskatchewan continued to drop on Friday, with the province reporting 2,364. The figure hasn't been that low since the end of August, when the province reported 2,204 known active cases. 

Meanwhile, the 14 Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) health workers requested by the province to help alleviate the strain on Saskatchewan's COVID-19 plagued health-care system are now all on the job.

In an update earlier this week, CAF said six critical care nurses deployed to Saskatchewan were set to begin work on Thursday, and four non-ICU nurses and four technicians were expected to be in place by Friday. 

All the CAF health-care workers are deployed at the Regina General Hospital.

"This is done to ensure our members go to the locations where they can be of the most benefit," wrote Capt. Bonnie Wilken, public affairs officer for the armed forces' Canadian Joint Operations Command (CJOC), in an email on Thursday. 

COVID-19 hospitalizations in Saskatchewan also dropped by 22 to 238 on Friday. That statistic hasn't been that low since mid-September. 

The number COVID-19 patients in the ICU also dropped. There are now 54 COVID patients receiving intensive care in the province. 

That's in addition to the 22 ICU patients who have now been transported to Ontario where they will receive treatment. 

Another six are scheduled to have been tranferred as of Sunday. 

In general, COVID data points throughout the province continued to trend down on Friday. 

The province's seven-day rolling average dropped to 209. 

The province reported 2,540 tests being completed on Friday, a drop from the 2,912 tests reported the day before. 

Test positivity remained at a seven-day rolling average of nine per cent. 

The province reported 238 news cases on Friday. 

The new cases were reported in the following zones:

• Far northwest: four.
• Far northeast: eight.
• Northwest: 26.
• North central: 15.
• Northeast: five.
• Saskatoon: 61.
• Central west: three.
• Central east: 28.
• Regina: 40.
• Southwest: three.
• South central: seven.
• Southeast: 28.

Ten additional cases are pending residence information.  

The province also reported three new deaths on Friday, bringing the total to 846 deaths since the pandemic began.

One death occurred in the far northwest health zone, another was in the northwest zone and one was in the north central zone.

The province remains on track to have October be the deadliest month of the pandemic in Saskatchewan.

There have been 146 deaths as of Friday, just five shy of the record 151 deaths reported in January. 

The province administered 3,974 new doses of the COVID-19 vaccine Thursday. Roughly 68 per cent of the doses were second shots with the rest being first doses. 

That helped push Saskatchewan to having 85.37 per cent of its eligible population with one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, while 77.61 per cent of the eligible population has two doses.