In the July 8 COVID-19 update from The Saskatchewan Health Authority they are reporting 113 new cases of the virus in the province.

Today's rise in cases is largely attributed to the previously reported outbreak in the Hatchet Lake area. Some First Nations, including Hatchet Lake, use a rapid testing machine provided by the federal government to support rapid case contact identification. Positive cases need to then be manually entered into the provincial system. However, data entry into the provincial system has been delayed while staff work on the immediate outbreak response. Additional staffing supports have been brought in and staff will be working on entering the COVID tests into the provincial system.

Of the 113 new cases reported there are 2 in the Far North West zone, 3 in the Far North Central zone, 58 in the North East zone, 2 in the North West zone, 2 in the North Central zone, 16 in the Saskatoon zone, 1 in the Central West zone, 2 in the Central East zone, and 12 in the Regina zone.

There are 15 cases with pending residence information.

Five cases were reassigned as follows -  1 to the Far North West zone, 1 to the North Central zone, and 3 to the North West zone.

That brings the provincial total number of cases to 49,152, of which 415 are considered active.

There are 12 active cases in the South West zone -all in the South West subzone 2.

There were no new deaths reported, leaving the provincial total number of deaths at 570.

There were 17 recoveries reported, bringing that provincial total to 48,167.

There are 62 people in the hospital. Fifty-one are receiving inpatient care - 4 in the North West zone, 7 in the North Central zone, 21 in the Saskatoon zone, 1 in the Central West zone, 3 in the Central East zone, 11 in the Regina zone, 1 in the South Central zone, and 2 in the South East zone.

There is 1 person receiving inpatient care in the South West zone.

There are 11 people in intensive care - 1 in the North West zone, 3 in the North Central zone, 4 in the Saskatoon zone, and 3 in the Regina zone.

The seven-day average of new COVID-19 cases is 42 (3.5 new cases per 100,000 population).

To date, there has been 929,868 COVID-19 tests processed in Saskatchewan.

And yesterday, there were 2,240 COVID-19 tests processed.

As of July 7, there were a total of 12,238 variants of concern cases identified by screening in the province - 328 in the Far North West zone, 4 in the Far North Central zone, 87 in the Far North East zone, 839 in the North West zone, 634 in the North Central zone, 80 in the North East zone, 2,127 in the Saskatoon zone, 149 in the Central West zone, 651 in the Central East zone, 4,812 in the Regina zone, 889 in the South Central zone, and 1,148 in the South East zone.

There are a total of 409 in the South West zone.

There are 81 screened variants of concern cases with residence pending.

There were 72 lineage results reported.

Of the 7,587 variants of concern cases with lineages identified by whole genome sequencing, 6,879 are Alpha (B.1.1.7), 389 are Gamma (P.1), 309 are Delta (B.1.617.2), and 10 are Beta (B.1.351).

An additional 13,314 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been given in Saskatchewan, bringing the total number administered to 1,260,567. Over half a million residents are now fully vaccinated.

Of the 13,314 vaccine doses given. there were 265 administered in the South West zone.

Seventy-one percent of those over 12 have received their first vaccine dose and 51% of those 12 and over are fully vaccinated.