COVID-19 in Sask.: Test positivity rate at 27.6%

The fifth wave of the pandemic has led to a new flood of confirmed COVID-19 casesin Saskatchewan, with more than a quarter of the people who receive PCR testing in the past day coming back as positive.

On Thursday, the province reported a 27.6 per cent positivity rate for the past day, witha daily record 913 newcases from3,307 tests.Saskatoon had almost half of the confirmed new cases with 432.

"This is not the time for any gatherings," said Saskatchewan chief medical health officer Saqib Shahabat a COVID-19 update Thursday afternoon.

Saskatchewan is the only province that does not have any gathering limits.

The province now has 5,235 confirmed active cases. The seven-day average of new cases stands at597. Those numbers don'tinclude people who have had positive home rapid tests but not confirmed with PCR testing, and otherswho carry the virus but aren't showing any symptoms.

One more person has died, bringing the total number ofCOVID-related deaths in the province to 961.

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Despite the record number of new cases, hospitalizations were down Thursday.

There were 100 people in hospital with COVID-19, down six from Wednesday. Twelve of those patients are in intensive care.

The province said39 of the COVID-19 cases in hospital are incidental. These are asymptomatic patients who came in for other things and tested positivewhen screened for COVID-19.

About 84 per cent of the peoplefive and olderhave had their first vaccine dose and 76 per cent of that group arefully vaccinated.