The Saskatchewan government says there were 293 new COVID-19 cases Wednesday to go along with 222 recoveries and two deaths.  This puts the active case count at 2,599 with the Regina zone still accounting for the most at 953 which is 36.7 percent of the provincial total. Regina had 87 of the 293 cases.

The new cases are located in the Far North West (8), North West (24), North Central (8), North East (5), Saskatoon (74), Central West (15), Central East (22),  South West (4), South Central (4) and South East (24) zones.

The people who died were someone in their 70’s from the Regina zone and someone aged 8o plus from the southeast zone.

188 people are in hospital which is down 15 from Wednesday’s report. Of those 188, 41 are in intensive care which is the same number as Wednesday.

The seven-day average of daily new cases now stands at 284 or 23.2 new cases per 100,000.

When it comes to variants of concern. there are now 4,183 that have been identified which is an increase of 282 from Wednesday. They have been reported in the Far North West (10), Far North East (2), North West (51), North Central (48), North East (4), Saskatoon (372), Central West (44), Central East (135), Regina (2,673), South West (67), South Central (342) and South East (398) zones.

7,956 vaccines were administered on Wednesday.

The eligible age for booking vaccination appointments online or by telephone will be lowered to 48 years starting at 8:00 a.m. Friday  Online appointments can be made by visiting www.saskatchewan.ca/COVID19.

This does not include Regina. The Regina COVID-19 vaccine drive thru will be available to residents 46-54 years starting Friday, April 16.