In the February 4 COVID-19 update from The Saskatchewan Health Authority they are reporting a total of 250 new cases of the virus in the province.

Of those 250 new cases there are 10 in the Far North West zone, 6 in the Far North Central zone, 37 in the Far North East zone, 24 in the North West zone, 22 in the North Central zone, 5 in the North East zone, 49 in the Saskatoon zone, 10 in the Central West zone, 17 in the Central East zone, 44 in the Regina zone, 10 in the South Central zone, and 11 in the South East zone.

There are 5 new cases with pending residence information.

Eleven cases with pending residence information have been assigned as follows- 8 to the North Central zone, 2 to the North East zone, and 1 to the Regina zone.

That brings the total number of COVID-19 cases in the province to 24,680, of which 2,265 are considered active.

There are currently 9 active cases in the South West zone. Of those 9 active cases, there are 8 active cases in the South West zone 1, which includes Abbey, Bracken, Cabri, Gull Lake, Shaunavon, Eastend and Frontier areas, and there is 1 active case in the South West zone 2, which is Swift Current and surrounding area.

There is one outbreak listed at the Assiniboia Union Hospital in the South Central zone. In non-household settings, an outbreak is confirmed when two or more people test positive for COVID-19.

The seven-day average of daily new cases is 234 (19.1 new cases per 100,000 population).

A third case of the UK COVID-19 variant (B.1.1.7) has been detected in a resident in the Saskatoon zone. The contact investigation has determined that 1 case has travelled from south east Asia.

The individual was tested mid-January. The individual quarantined following the travel and is now no longer infectious. Public Health's contact investigation indicates that all contacts of this resident have been identified and there is no indication of further transmission. If required, public health will issue a public service announcement to alert the general public to any risk due to any confirmed case of a variant of concern.

While the Roy Romanow Provincial Laboratory is testing travelers for variants of concern, those tests must be genome-sequenced at the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg at this time. This process can take one to two weeks. The RRPL is planning to increase their capacity to complete genome sequencing in Saskatchewan.

Seven Saskatchewan residents who tested positive for COVID-19 have died. Two deaths were reported in the 50-59 age group from the Far North West (1) and North West(1) zones, two deaths were reported in the 60-69 age group from the North West (1) and Saskatoon (1) zones, one death was reported in the 70-79 age group from the South Central zone, and two deaths were reported in the 80+ age group from the Saskatoon zone.

That brings the provincial total number of deaths related to COVID-19 to 329.

There have been 232 recoveries, bringing that provincial total to  22,086.

There are 216 people in hospital. One hundred and eighty-six people are receiving inpatient care - 4 in the Far North West zone, 1 in the Far North East zone, 21 in the North West zone, 26 in the North Central zone, 4 in the North East zone, 70 in the Saskatoon zone, 1 in the Central West zone, 11 in the Central East zone, 43 in the Regina zone, 1 in the South Central zone, and 4 in the South East zone.

There are currently 30 people in intensive care -  2 in the North West zone, 1 in the North Central zone, 13 in the Saskatoon zone, 4 in the Central East zone, and 10 in the Regina zone.

To date, there have been 517,756 COVID-19 tests processed in Saskatchewan.

And yesterday, there were 2,464 COVID-19 tests processed.

The Weekly Monitoring Report for Children and Youth aged 0 to 19 years has been released for the week of January 25-31.

There was a total of 601 active cases in children and youth, five of which have location/residence information unavailable.

There were 79 active cases in the Far North West zone, 16 in the Far North Central zone,27 in the Far North East zone,80 in the North West zone, 50 in the North Central zone, 43 in the North East zone, 11 in the Central West zone,15 in the Central East zone, 121 in the Saskatoon zone, 116 in the Regina zone,2 in the South West zone,6 in the South Central zone, and 30 in the South East zone.

There were 723 COVID-19 vaccine doses administered yesterday in Saskatchewan, bringing the total number of vaccines administered in the province to 36,527.

Saskatchewan's Moderna allocation of 6,000 doses is scheduled to arrive at the RRPL on February 5. It will be distributed to the Far North and North zones to provide second doses as well as to the Central West zone, specifically Kindersley and Rosetown, for first doses.