Nine new cases of COVID-19 have been discovered in Saskatchewan, bringing the provincial total to 553.

Five of those cases were in the Far North, three were in the North and, for the first time in weeks, one was in the Central region.

With five recoveries, 207 of the cases are considered active. There have been a total of 340 recoveries and six deaths.

There are 15 people currently in hospital. Of those, five are in intensive care – four in Saskatoon and one in the North.

Of the 531 provincial cases, 138 are travel-related, 273 are community contacts or mass gatherings, 61 have no known exposures and 81 are under investigation by public health.

Forty-six of the cases are health care workers, and the province says the infections may not be because of their health care in all instances.

A total of 163 of the cases are from the Saskatoon area, 76 are from the Regina area, 103 are from the north, 184 are from the far north, 15 are from the south and 12 are from the central region.

Seventy-four cases are of people 19 and younger, and 110 are in the 60-and-older range. It’s once again a statistical even split at 50 per cent male and 50 per cent female.

Thusfar, 36,117  tests have been performed in Saskatchewan.

Meanwhile, liquor sales in La Loche are closed. That northern village’s mayor Robert St. Pierre notified the province that their council pass a resolution recommending the full closure of all alcohol sales, distribution, consumption sites and uses, effective Saturday

“The Ministry of Health and Saskatchewan Health Authority will support the community to identify and assist residents who may be at risk of harm due to alcohol withdrawal, and will be providing further alcohol addictions program supports in the community,”the province’s release said Saturday . Nationally, there have been over 67,600 confirmed cases and nearly 4,700 deaths from COVID-19. There have also been over 31,000 recoveries.

The United States was over 78,000 deaths Thursday afternoon and is over 1.3 million cases.