The Saskatchewan government released the most recent COVID-19 numbers Tuesday afternoon, updating numbers from over the Christmas period. Between December 24th and Tuesday, 896 new cases of COVID-19 were reported. This included 162 new cases from Tuesday.

Two deaths connected to COVID-19 were also reported.

The increase in cases brought the number of active cases across the province to 1,438. This is the most active cases within Saskatchewan since November 11th, as the number of cases was on the decline.

While there was a spike in the number of cases, there wasn’t an increase in hospitalizations. The number of people in the hospital receiving treatment for COVID-19 was reported as 80. This is the fewest number of patients receiving COVID-19 treatment in the hospital since August. The number of people in intensive care receiving treatment for COVID-19 was also down, with 16 people in ICU.

The past five days saw another 3,913 doses of COVID-19 vaccine being administered in the province. The doses were broken down into 1,571 first doses and 2,342 second doses. With the number of doses being reported, 72.3 percent of the province’s total population is now fully vaccinated against COVID-19, and 7.3 percent is partially vaccinated.

The South Central zone reported 63 new cases over the Christmas period. 

The provincial government is urging residents to utilize a layering of preventative measures, including getting fully vaccinated, wearing the best mask possible when outside of the home, using rapid tests for asymptomatic screening and getting a PCR test immediately if there are symptoms, limiting contacts, limiting non-essential travel, socializing outdoors whenever possible as opposed to indoor socializing and staying home if you are sick.