Saskatchewan reports marked decreases in COVID, flu and RSV cases

Saskatchewan’s Ministry of Health says the number of cases of respiratory illnesses continues to drop in the province.

In the Community Respiratory Illness Surveillance Program report issued Thursday, the ministry said there were 37 lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the week ending Saturday. In the last full week of May, there were 76 such cases.

The report said there was just one lab-confirmed case of Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) over the four weeks contained in the report, a total that the ministry said represents “a point of inactivity.” There were 15 such cases in the previous four-week period.

As well, the ministry said the number of lab-confirmed influenza cases was just seven in the week ending Saturday. There were 27 lab-confirmed cases in the second week of May.

According to the report, flu activity has dipped below the two per cent test-positivity threshold.

COVID-19

The ministry said there were nine deaths over the four weeks included in the report — five in the week of May 21-27, two in the week of May 28 to June 3, two between June 4 and June 10, and none in the week ending Saturday.

To date, 1,995 Saskatchewan residents have died due to COVID.

The test-positivity rate in the province last week was 3.1 per cent, exactly half the rate in the last week included in the previous report.

COVID-related hospitalizations have dropped from 219 in the previous four-week period to 70 in the four-week stretch included in the report. There were only five COVID patients in ICU over the past four weeks.

Influenza

The report said there weren’t any flu-related deaths over the past four weeks in the province.

The test-positivity rate for the flu was 4.5 per cent in the week of May 14-20; last week, the rate was 1.3 per cent.

Influenza hospitalizations have fallen from 26 for the previous four weeks to six for the most-recent four-week period. There weren’t any flu patients in ICU over the past month, down from four in the previous four-week period.

RSV

There weren’t any RSV-related hospitalizations over the past four weeks, down from eight in the previous reporting period.

One person was in intensive care with the virus three weeks ago — the only ICU admission due to RSV in Saskatchewan since May 20.