The Saskatchewan Health Authority is reporting that, as of January 4, there are 1,954 cumulative new confirmed cases of the COVID-19 virus in the province.

Breaking it down to the single day case counts - there were 623 on December 31, 607 on January 1,  398 on January 2,  326 on January 3, and 326 on January 4.

Of those new cases there are 9 in the Far North West zone, 13 in the Far North East zone, 44 in the North West zone, 89 in the North Central zone, 53 in the North East zone, 566 in the Saskatoon zone, 37 in the Central West zone, 175 in the Central East zone, 509 in the Regina zone, 124 in the South Central zone, and 144 in the South East zone.

There are 43 new confirmed cases in the South West zone.

There are 148 new cases with pending residence information.

Twenty-six Saskatchewan residents tested positive out of the province and were added as follows - 1 to the Far North West zone, 2 to the North West zone, 13 to the Saskatoon zone, 6 to the Regina zone, 1 to the South Central zone, and 3 to the South East zone.

Sixty-four cases were assigned to various zones.

One case was removed from the case total from the North West zone.

That brings the provincial total number of cases to 87,167, of which 4,062 are considered active.

As of January 4, there are 86 active cases in the South West zone - 15 in South West subzone 1, and 71 in South West subzone 2.

One-half (50.2%) of new cases are in the 20 to 39 age category. Please note that this percentage is calculated based on the cumulative number of new cases from January 1 to 3.

Less than 5% (4.8%) of new cases eligible for vaccination (aged 5 years and older) were fully vaccinated.

The seven-day average of new COVID-19 case numbers is 515 (42.7 new cases per 100,000 population).

There have been 5 new deaths reported since the December 31 report, bringing the provincial total number of deaths to 960.

There were 756 recoveries reported since December 31, 11 of those in the South West zone, bringing the provincial total number of recoveries to 82,145.

As of January 4, there are 95 people in the hospital - 84 receiving inpatient care, and 11 in intensive care.

Of those 95 patients, 49 (51.6%) were not fully vaccinated.

The province has announced public reporting distinguishing COVID-19 hospitalizations and hospitalizations where COVID-19 diagnosis followed hospitalization. That reporting mechanism is expected to be ready the week of January 3.

Of the 17,605 variants of concern cases identified by whole genome sequencing in the province, 7,123 are Alpha (B.1.1.7), 10 are Beta (B.1.351), 484 are Gamma (P.1), 9,871 are Delta (B.1.617.2), and 117 are Omicron (B.1.1.529).

To date, 1,339,499 COVID-19 tests have been processed in Saskatchewan.

There were 3,882 COVID-19 vaccinations administered since December 31, 91 of those in the South West zone.

That brings the provincial total number of vaccinations given to 1,803,884.

There are now 859,907 Saskatchewan residents who are fully vaccinated.

Those who are moderately to severely immunocompromised and have had three doses for their primary COVID-19 vaccination series are eligible to receive a booster/fourth dose at least 3 months after their third dose.

These individuals include those who had received a letter of eligibility from the Ministry of Health, including people receiving chemo and immuno-suppressive therapies, those with HIV or who have had organ transplants.