Saskatchewan reports decrease in COVID-related deaths, hospitalizations

The number of COVID-related deaths and hospitalizations dropped in Saskatchewan over the past two weeks, while the total number of confirmed COVID cases remained relatively stable.

According to the Community Respiratory Illness Surveillance Program report issued Thursday by the Ministry of Health, seven people – all over the age of 60 – died due to COVID between Feb. 12 and this past Saturday. That total was down from 16 in the previous two-week reporting period (Jan. 29 to Feb. 11).

Since March of 2020, 1,890 Saskatchewan residents have died due to COVID-19.

Between Jan. 29 and Feb. 4, there were 86 people admitted to Saskatchewan hospitals with COVID. As of last Saturday, COVID-related hospital admissions had fallen to 54.

However, ICU admissions due to the virus rose from four as of Feb. 4 to six as of Saturday.

Flu cases detected by lab testing increased from four in the week of Feb. 4 to nine last week – a result, the ministry said, of the emergence of the first cases of Influenza type B, which typically is seen in the late influenza season in March and April.

Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) cases have dropped over the past four weeks, but its test positivity rate remained high at 12.1 per cent.

COVID-19

In the week of Feb. 11, there were 207 lab-confirmed cases of COVID in Saskatchewan. Last week, that number was 194.

The test positivity rate rose slightly from 6.4 per cent three weeks ago to 6.6 per cent last week.

The most cases last week were in the 65-and-over age group (43 per cent), followed by the 20-to-64 age group (42 per cent).

The ministry urged people to get booster shots, noting that having a shot in the past six months “reduces the risk of a COVID-19 death eight times compared to unvaccinated individuals and over four times compared to those without a recent booster dose.”

Only 20 per cent of people aged five and over in Saskatchewan have received their latest booster dose in the past six months. The Regina region is the only one in the province with more than 50 per cent of its population up to date on their COVID vaccines.

Only 47 per cent of the province’s population over the age of 50 has had more than one booster dose.

Influenza

The test positivity rate for the flu dropped from 2.1 per cent in the first week of January to 0.3 per cent in mid-February, but that number climbed to 1.0 per cent last week with the emergence of type B. Even so, there were just nine flu cases confirmed in lab testing last week.

There weren’t any flu-related deaths or hospital admissions in Saskatchewan over the past two weeks.

As of Jan. 31, 27 per cent of Saskatchewan residents had received a flu shot. That was a 10 per cent drop from the same time last year.

Other Respiratory Illnesses

While RSV had the highest lab test positivity rate among the respiratory illnesses (12.1 per cent), the number of confirmed cases fell from 147 as of Feb. 4 to 96 last week.

The majority of those cases – 56 per cent – were among children aged four and under.

There were 39 hospitalizations and six ICU admissions due to RSV last week, down from 58 and eight, respectively, as of Feb. 4.