For the fifth straight day, Saskatchewan is seeing a double-digit increase in the amount of new COVID-19 cases.
The daily update from the Ministry of Health shows 90 new cases and two new deaths. With 177 recoveries, the active case count stands at 1,053 with 159 of those in the Regina zone
Both of the people who died were aged 80 plus and come from the North West and North Central zones.
There are 104 people in hospital with 86 of those 104 receiving inpatient care and the 18 in intensive care. In Regina, 30 people are getting inpatient care with six in the ICU.
The seven-day daily average of new cases now sits at 97.
There were 6,724 vaccine shots given on Monday.
| Status of Population Vaccinations, as of June 7, 2021 | ||||
| Group | Estimated Population |
Received First Dose |
Fully Vaccinated |
|
| Age 80+ | 51,304 | 46,942 (91%) | 38,905 (76%) | |
| Age 70-79 | 79,817 | 71,869 (90%) | 42,950 (54%) | |
| Age 60-69 | 138,471 | 115,882 (84%) | 26,282 (19%) | |
| Age 50-59 | 147,466 | 107,479 (73%) | 11,497 (8%) | |
| Age 40-49 | 151,896 | 101,148 (67%) | 8,926 (6%) | |
| Age 30-39 | 183,246 | 102,014 (56%) | 8,603 (5%) | |
| Age 18-29 | 189,909 | 91,313 (48%) | 6,171 (3%) | |
| Age 12-17 | 90,987 | 35,898 (39%) | 168 (0%) | |
Saskatchewan Health Minister Paul Merriman said the overwhelming majority of residents last month who caught COVID-19 or were hospitalized were not vaccinated.
Merriman shared that information Tuesday as the province has now administered over 672,000 first doses, while more than 143,000 have received their second shot.
He said this as he asks people who are hesitant to get their first shot to reconsider so they can protect themselves and the people around them.
“This will greatly reduce the chance that you will contract COVID-19 and pass it along to others, and if you do get COVID, chances are you will have very mild symptoms or no symptoms at all if fully vaccinated,” stated Merriman during Tuesday’s COVID-19 update by the provincial government.
Of the 5,296 new COVID cases last month in Saskatchewan, almost 92 per cent were people who were vaccinated or just recently received their first dose before contracting the virus.
With vaccination numbers slowing down in Saskatchewan recently, one suggestion is for the government to adopt vaccination incentives to encourage people to get vaccinated.
While it has been introduced in other jurisdictions, Merriman said they have not seen anything that they feel would help increase rates more in the province. He believes Saskatchewan’s vaccine rollout has been extremely good so far.
“The vaccine uptake has slowed a bit as of late, but I think there are a many factors in that,” he added. “The weather is getting nicer, we are getting into a younger age demographic that is busy and working.”
Merriman mentioned that the government has already offered certain incentives such as three hours paid time from work in order to leave and get vaccinated.
(With files from Moises Canales)
