The provincial government reported there was a drop in the number of people in hospital with COVID19 Saturday, but also two deaths linked to the virus.

The daily update showed there were 1,032 new lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 throughout the province, while two deaths were reported. Since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, there have now been 989 deaths linked to COVID-19.

There are currently 340 people in hospitals throughout the province receiving treatment for COVID-19, which is down by two from Friday. Of those, 36 were in intensive care, an increase of two.

The number of active cases in Saskatchewan did decline by 132, down to 12,553, as there were 1,236 recoveries included in Saturday’s update.

Geographically, the bulk of the new cases were located in Saskatoon and Regina, with 273 and 156 lab-confirmed cases respectively. There were 110 new cases in the North Central region, 89 in the Central East, 64 in the South Central and 57 in the South East. Another 52 cases were reported in the North West, 50 in the South West, 34 in the Far North East, 31 in the Central West, 29 in the North East, six in the Far North West and two in the Far North Central region.

The distribution by age saw the most new cases reported in the 20-39 age group with 385. There were another 323 new cases reported in the 40-59 age group. The 12-19 age group had 135 new cases, with 97 in the 60-79 group, 83 in the 5-11 group, 48 in the four and under group and 35 in the 80 and over group.

In terms of vaccinations, there were 700 first doses administered and 1,432 second doses. The update detailed that 75.8 percent of the population has at least two doses, with 5.8 percent having one dose, and 18.3 percent has not received a COVID-19 vaccine.