In the April 23 COVID-19 update from The Saskatchewan Health Authority they are reporting 245 new cases of the virus in the province.

Of those 245 new cases there are 2 in the Far North West zone, 9 in the Far North East zone, 23 in the North West zone, 15 in the North Central zone, 5 in the North East zone, 40 in the Saskatoon zone, 3 in the Central West zone, 19 in the Central East zone, and 75 in the Regina zone.

There are 10 new cases in the South West zone, 12 in the South Central zone, and 27 in the South East zone.

There are 5 new cases with pending residence information.

Fourteen cases with pending residence information have been assigned as follows - 1 to the North Central zone, and 13 to the Regina zone.

Ten cases that were tested of the province have been added as follows - 4 to the Far North East zone, and 6 to the North West zone.

That brings the provincial total number of cases to 39,392, of which 2,463 are considered active.

There are 103 active cases in the South West zone - 61 in the South West subzone 1, and 42 in the South West subzone 2.

The seven-day average of new COVID-19 cases is 251 (20.5 new cases per 100,000 population).

There is 1 new death reported in the 60-69 age group from the Regina zone.

That brings the provincial number of deaths to 471.

There were 296 recoveries reported, bringing that provincial total to 36,458.

There are 186 people in the hospital. One hundred and thirty-four people are receiving inpatient care - 1 in the Far North East zone, 9 in the North West zone, 7 in the North Central zone, 44 in the Saskatoon zone, 8 in the Central East zone, and 51 in the Regina zone.

There are 3 people receiving inpatient care in the South West zone, 4 in the South Central zone, and 7 in the South East zone.

There are 52 people in intensive care - 2 in the North Central zone, 11 in the Saskatoon zone, 2 in the Central East zone, and 35 in the Regina zone.

There are 2 people in intensive care in the South West zone.

To date, there has been 745,435 COVID-19 tests processed in the province.

And yesterday, there were 4,157 COVID-19 tests processed.

As of April 22, there were 5,691 variants of concern identified by screening - 64 in the Far North West zone, 2 in the Far North East zone, 122 in the North West zone, 76 in the North Central zone, 9 in the North East zone,576 in the Saskatoon zone, 75 in the Central West zone, 236 in the Central East zone, and  3,286 in the Regina zone.

To date, the total number of variants of concern cases in the South West zone are 143, in the South Central 444, and in the South East 596.

There are 62 screened variants of concern with residence's pending.

There are 0 new lineage results  reported. Of the 2, 060 variants of concern with lineages reported by whole genome sequencing in the province, 2,046 are B.1.1.1.7 (UK), 9 are B.1.351 (SA), and 5 are P.1. (Brazilian).

The Regina zone accounts for 1,475 (or 72%) of the variants of concern cases with confirmed lineage reported in Saskatchewan.

Avoid all unnecessary travel throughout the province at this time.

An additional 9,801 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been given in the province, bringing the total number of vaccines administered to 382,135.

Of those 9,801 doses of vaccine, there were 503 given in the South West zone.

Fifty-four percent of residents aged 40+ in the province have received their first vaccine dose.