Unvaccinated COVID-19 patients overwhelm Saskatchewan hospitals The ICU numbers change throughout the day, but the province was just two patients away from having to activate its “red zone,” which is triggered when there are 116 people in intensive care.John Ash, executive director of the Saskatchewan Health Authority, said last week that additional nurses would need to be brought in, more surgeries would have to be cancelled and ICU patients would need to be transferred out of province when the red zone is triggered.Saskatchewan has already stopped all elective surgeries, started cancelling urgent surgeries and admitted adults into its children’s hospital.