In the May 18 COVID-19 update from The Saskatchewan Health Authority they are reporting 129 new cases of the virus in the province.

Of those 129 new cases there is 1 in the Far North West zone, 5 in the Far North East zone, 18 in the North West zone, 14 in the North Central zone, 4 in the North East zone, 47 in the Saskatoon zone, 3 in the Central West zone, 5 in the Central East zone, 22 in the Regina zone, 2 in the South Central zone, and 7 in the South East zone.

There  is 1 new case reported in the South West zone, located in the South West subzone 1.

Three cases with pending residence information have been assigned as follows - 1 to the North West zone, and 2 to the Regina zone.

Three cases tested out of the province have been added as follows - 2 to the Regina zone, and 1 to the Saskatoon zone.

That brings the provincial total number of cases to 44,841, of which 1,825 are considered active.

There are 72 active cases in the South West zone - 44 in the South West subzone 1, and 28 in the South West subzone 2.

The seven-day average of new COVID-19 cases is 187 (15.3 new cases per 100,000 population).

There are 269 recoveries reported, bringing that provincial total to 42,494.

There are 3 new deaths reported. All 3 individuals were in the 70-79 age group, with 1 from the Far North East zone, and 2 from the Saskatoon zone.

That brings the provincial total number of deaths to 522.

There are 142 people in the hospital. One hundred and fifteen people are receiving inpatient care - 6 in the North West zone, 5 in the North Central zone, 44 in the Saskatoon zone, 5 in the Central East zone, 47 in the Regina zone, 2 in the South Central zone, and 4 in the South East zone.

There  are 2 people receiving inpatient care in the South West zone.

There are 27 people in intensive care - 1 in the North West zone, 2 in the North Central zone, 9 in the Saskatoon zone, and 15 in the Regina zone.

To date, there has been 827,762 COVID-19 tests processed in Saskatchewan.

And yesterday there were 2,629 COVID-19 tests processed.

As of May 17 there are a total of 9,467 variants of concern cases identified by screening in the province - 209 in the Far North West zone, 18 in the Far North East zone, 422 in the North West zone, 293 in the North Central zone, 55 in the North East zone, 1,336 in the Saskatoon zone, 101 in the Central West zone, 475 in the Central East zone, 4,428 in the Regina zone, 681 in the South Central zone, and 978 in the South East zone.

There is a total of 322 variants of concern cases reported to date in the South West zone.

There are 149 screened variants of concern cases with residence pending.

There are 143 new lineage results reported.

Of the 4,586 variants of concern with lineages identified by whole genome sequencing in the province 4,477 are B.1.1.1.7(UK), 92 are P.1 (Brazilian), 10 are B.1.351 (SA), and 7 are B.1.617 (Indian).

An additional 5,399 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been given in Saskatchewan, bringing the total number of vaccines administered to 608,524.

Of those 5,399 vaccine doses there were 79 administered in the South West zone.

Seventy-five per cent of those over the age of 40, 68% of those over 30, and  59% of those over 18 have received their first vaccine dose.