In the June 18 COVID-19 update from The Saskatchewan Health Authority they are reporting a total of 98 new cases of the virus in the province.

Of those 98 new cases there is 1 in the Far North West zone, 9 in the North West zone, 19 in the North Central zone, 2 in the North East zone, 12 in the Saskatoon zone, 8 in the Central West zone, 8 in the Central East zone, 25 in the Regina zone, 4 in the South Central zone, and 4 in the South East zone.

There are no new cases reported in the South West zone.

There are 6 cases with pending residence information.

Two cases with pending residence information have been assigned to the Far North West zone (1), and to the Far North East zone (1).

Nine cases tested out of the province were added as follows - 3 to the Far North East zone, 1 to the North West zone, 1 to the Saskatoon zone, 1 to the Central East zone, and 3 to the Regina zone.

That brings the provincial total number of cases to 48,327, of which 763 are considered active.

There are 22 active cases in the South West zone - 3 in the South West subzone 1, and 19 in the South West subzone 2.

The seven-day average of new COVID-19 cases is 78 ( 6.4 new cases per 100,000 population).

There are 95 recoveries reported, bringing that provincial total to 47,002.

There is 1 new death reported. That death is in the 70-79 age group from the North West zone.

That brings the provincial total number of deaths to 562.

There are 81 people in the hospital. Seventy-one people are receiving inpatient care - 1 in the Far North West zone, 10 in the North West zone, 8 in the North Central zone, 26 in the Saskatoon zone, 2 in the Central East zone, 20 in the Regina zone, and 4 in the South Central zone.

There are 10 people in intensive care - 1 in the North Central zone, 6 in the Saskatoon zone, and 3 in the Regina zone.

To date, there has been 898,086 COVID-19 tests processed in the province.

And yesterday, there were 2,455 COVID-19 tests processed.

As of June 17, there are a total of 11,904 variants of concern cases identified by screening - 291 in the Far North West zone, 1 in the Far North Central zone, 80 in the Far North East zone, 762 in the North West zone, 612 in the North Central zone, 79 in the North East zone, 2,066 in the Saskatoon zone, 143 in the Central West zone, 640 in the Central East zone, 4,764 in the Regina zone, 877 in the South Central zone, and 1,120 in t he South East zone.

There are a total of 399 in the South West zone.

There are 70 screened variants of concern cases with residence pending.

There are 4 new lineage results reported.

Of the 6,447 variants of concern cases  with lineages identified by whole genome sequencing in the province, 6,136 are Alpha (B.1.1.7), 231 are Gamma (P.1), 70 are Delta (B.1.617.2), and 10 are Beta (B.1.351).

At the end of the day June 17 there were an additional 24,260 vaccinations administered in Saskatchewan. This represents two days of vaccine administration (Wednesday June 16 and Thursday June 17), Vaccine reporting numbers have routinely been reported over a 48-hour period in order to ensure complete vaccine administration data/information and therefore represents vaccinations from two days previous. The vaccine administration reporting timeline was adjusted to a 24-hour period for a short term in order to provide the most up to date information to support a decision on the ability to move to Step 3 of the Re-Open Roadmap.

Of those 24, 260 vaccine doses, there were 612 administered in the South West zone.

Twenty-five percent of all eligible residents are now fully vaccinated.

Seventy-nine percent of those over the age of 40, 74% of those over 30, 69% of those over 18, and 68% of those over 12 have received their first vaccine dose.

On June 17 the National Advisory Council on Immunization updated their statement on recommendations on the use of COVID-19 vaccine, including recommendations for those who received AstraZeneca as their first dose. Saskatchewan will continue to allow residents the choice of receiving AstraZeneca as their second dose, or an mRNA vaccine (Moderna or Pfizer).

There are no first dose AstraZeneca clinics planned at this time.

All AstraZeneca second dose clinics will be offered through the SHA and residents seeking AstraZeneca as their second dose can book those appointments when the clinics become available.