Saskatchewan reports first flu-related death of season

Saskatchewan has recorded its first influenza-related death of the 2022-23 respiratory virus season.

The biweekly Community Respiratory Illness Surveillance Program report issued Thursday said the death occurred sometime between Nov. 13 and last Saturday. The person was over the age of 50.

The report also included 25 deaths related to COVID-19 — 12 between Nov. 6 and Nov. 12, and 13 in the week ending Saturday.

The report was to include absentee rates at Saskatchewan schools due to respiratory viruses, but that data wasn’t available due to what was termed “a data quality issue.”

Influenza

The report noted influenza numbers in Saskatchewan continued to climb over the past two weeks.

Cases of the flu have increased from 68 in the week of Oct. 23-29 to 635 in the week that ended last Saturday.

The test positivity rate for the flu was 34.2 per cent in the week ending Saturday.

The northeast area around Melfort (88.2 per cent) and Regina region (44.5 per cent) had the highest test positivity rates for influenza in the province between Oct. 23 and Saturday.

There were seven flu outbreaks reported in the province between Nov. 6 and Nov. 12, and eight in the week that ended Saturday. There hadn’t been any outbreaks reported in the two weeks before that.

Hospital admissions due to the flu have increased significantly in recent weeks. After reporting eight admissions in the week of Oct. 23-29, the Ministry of Health reported 102 last week.

There were eight people with the flu in intensive care units in the province, up from one three weeks earlier.

The ministry noted the province’s influenza immunization campaign launched Oct. 11. As of Saturday, 19 per cent of the population had received a flu shot, up four per cent from from the previous week. At this time last year, that percentage stood at 37 per cent.

COVID-19

COVID case numbers in the province dropped from 600 in the week ending Nov. 5 to 448 in the week ending Nov. 12. There was a slight increase to 453 in the seven-day period ending Saturday.

The test positivity rate for COVID in the province dropped to 7.2 per cent in the last week reported.

Hospitalizations fell from 180 in the week ending Nov. 5 to 154 the following week and to 140 in the seven-day period ending Saturday.

COVID outbreaks fell to 10 last week from 18 the week before.

Of those aged five and up, only 20 per cent have received their latest booster dose in the last six months. Only 15 per cent of people aged 12 and over in the province have received a bivalent booster dose.

Other findings

RSV cases rose from 22 in the week of Nov. 6-12 to 29 last week, but the test positivity rate was the same at 1.9 per cent.

Outbreaks of “other” viruses rose from one to five week over week.

The report said weekly visits to emergency departments for respiratory-like illnesses in the province have doubled to 56.5 per 1,000 visits in the past week from 26.6 in mid-October.