COVID case numbers fall, test positivity rates rise in Saskatchewan

While lab-confirmed COVID-19 case numbers have decreased month over month in Saskatchewan, the test positivity rate has increased.

The latest Community Respiratory Illness Surveillance Program report — released Thursday by the Saskatchewan Ministry of Health — showed the number of lab-confirmed cases fell from 44 in the week of July 9-15 to 36 in the week ending last Saturday.

However, the test positivity rate rose from 4.6 per cent to 5.2 per cent over the same four-week period. It reached 7.5 per cent during the week of July 23-29 before falling to 5.2 per cent in the week ending Saturday.

That’s similar to data released by the Public Health Agency of Canada, which said the national positivity rate has increased over the past month, and now stands at 8.6 per cent. PHAC suggested fluctuations in some indicators seen across the country may be a sign that COVID is on the rise nationally.

Saskatchewan also reported two COVID-related deaths over the past month, increasing the total since March of 2020 to 2,004.

There were 10 COVID outbreaks reported in high-risk settings over the past four weeks.

The report said Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) has “reached the point of inactivity,” with no cases confirmed by lab testing since July 16.

There were five lab-confirmed influenza cases reported over the past four weeks, with a test positivity rate of 0.4 per cent. The interseasonal test positivity threshold is two per cent, suggesting the flu also is nearly dormant.

COVID-19

The report did say Saskatchewan has recorded its first detections of the EG.5 variant of COVID, with 21 cases confirmed by labs since July 16. It’s a variant of the most-commonly detected variant, XBB.1.9.2.

“Saskatchewan will provide publicly funded new COVID-19 monovalent vaccines that provide protection against more recent (XBB*) sub-lineages of Omicron in fall 2023 (pending Health Canada authorization),” the report said.

The report suggested hospitalizations due to COVID have increased over the past month.

According to the CRISP report released July 20, 59 people were admitted to hospital due to COVID between June 18 and July 15. The most-recent report said there were 80 hospital admissions for COVID in the four-week reporting period.

However, ICU admissions due to COVID fell from 10 to seven over the past four weeks.

Other illnesses

There weren’t any deaths due to influenza reported over the past four weeks, and only one hospitalization due to the flu.

The ministry didn’t report any flu outbreaks in high-risk settings.

However, there were six outbreaks recorded due to other viruses over the past four weeks, up from two outbreaks in the previous month. Those viruses include adenovirus, human metapneumovirus and seasonal coronavirus.

The number of cases involving those other viruses fell from 67 to 44 over the past month.