COVID 19: Sask. reaches vaccine milestone as Regina drive-thru bustling, 61 new cases and one death

Nearly a week after the date the provincial government set as a target for vaccinations in order to remove remaining health restrictions, Saskatchewan has reached that final milestone.

On Saturday, the province reported that 70 per cent of those 12 and over have received their first dose. According to the government’s reopening plan, the final restrictions — the mandatory mask order and gathering limits — were to be lifted July 11 if that goal was reached by June 20.

Despite hovering around 69 per cent Sunday, the province opted to drop those restrictions, a move Health Minister Paul Merriman defended Thursday by saying it made sent to lift them all restrictions at once.

Saturday was also the start of the first weekend after all Saskatchewan residents 12 and older became eligible for their second dose — provided it’s been 28 days since they had their first.

It was clear people in Regina were eager to get vaccinated Saturday morning. By 8 a.m., the SHA’s online drive-thru wait time page reported a wait time of over six hours at the city’s drive-thru vaccination site. According to a post on Twitter by the Saskatchewan Health Authority, the clinic had to close at four minutes after it opened, at 8:34 a.m.

The clinic will reopen on Sunday, providing the Moderna vaccine.

On Saturday, the province reported an additional 23,322 doses of vaccine had been given, bringing the total provincially to 1,092,980.

About half of those were in Saskatoon (6,732) and Regina (4,770). The remainder were administered in the far north west (330), far north central (10), far north east (225), north west (1,019), north east (871), central west (657), central east (2,219), south west (923), south central (1,309) and south east (2,128) zones. There are 650 doses with zone of residence pending.

Sixty-one new cases of COVID-19 were reported Saturday, with no new lineage results reported for variants of concern. Saskatchewan currently has 597 active cases, with 119 in Regina and 143 in Saskatoon.

One additional death was reported of a person who tested positive for COVID-19 in the 40 to 49 age group in Regina, bringing the total to 566.

There are 79 people in hospital and 10 in intensive care. The province also reported 71 recoveries.

The seven-day average of new COVID-19 case number is 50, or four per 100,000.

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