September was third-deadliest month of pandemic for Sask.

Saskatchewan's fourth wave of COVID-19 hit the province in September resulting in 88 deaths, the third-highest monthly total since the pandemic began.

In the first six days of October, the province has reported 38 deaths due to COVID, higher than the combined 35 deaths reported in July and August. At the current rate, October will become the second deadliest month of the pandemic.

On Wednesday, the province recorded another record for hospitalizations and ICU admissions. There are 356 people in hospital — 76 of them are in the ICU. That's 16 more inpatient hospitalizations and another three ICU patients compared to the record set the day before.

The province reported 17 deaths in the past two days, for a total of 733 since the pandemic began. Two deaths reported Wednesday were people age 20-39.

Deaths in Saskatchewan this fall have risen rose sharply from the summer:

• July 2021 - 10 deaths.
• August 2021 - 25 deaths.

The second wave of COVID-19 in Saskatchewan last winter saw the most deaths:

• December 2020 - 102 deaths.
• January 2021 - 151 deaths.

The province reported 153 deaths from COVID-19 in all of 2020. It has reported 160 since restrictions were lifted on July 11.

78% of hospitalizations, cases in Sept. were not fully vaccinated

The government released its COVID-19 data for September on Tuesday.

It said 77.9 per cent of new cases were not vaccinated or received their first dose within three weeks of testing positive, 6.9 per cent had one dose, and 22.1 per cent were fully vaccinated.

The ministry of health said of those fully vaccinated 11 per cent (320) had co-morbid conditions and 21.2 per cent (616) were 70 years and older.

Hospitalizations broke down similarly, with 77.6 per cent (449 people) not vaccinated or having tested positive with three weeks of receiving their first dose, 4.5 per cent (20) with one dose, and 20.5 per cent (101) were fully vaccinated.

The ministry said there were 72 deaths of cases reported in September, and 35 of those were not fully vaccinated or received their first shot within three weeks of testing positive.

"Transmissible diseases like COVID-19 are opportunistic: they will spread to and among under- and unvaccinated populations.  Increased transmission in the community will result in higher breakthrough infections," the ministry of health said in a news release.

Children and youth hospitalizations

When it comes to hospitalizations of youth in September, the ministry said 12 of 449 were 12 years of age or younger. 

Nearly 88 per cent (73 people) of those admitted to ICU in September were unvaccinated or tested positive with three weeks of receiving their first dose. Ten people who were admitted to the ICU were fully vaccinated.

The ministry said four of those admitted to ICU were 19 or younger and two children 12 or younger were admitted to the ICU last month.