COVID cases, hospitalizations, deaths decline in Saskatchewan

The number of new COVID-19 cases and the number of COVID-related deaths both dropped in the Saskatchewan Ministry of Health’s weekly update.

A look at the numbers

Between May 15 and Saturday, Saskatchewan saw 12 new deaths and 376 new lab-confirmed cases of the virus, a significant drop from the 22 deaths and 465 confirmed cases reported last week.

The Saskatoon region was the hotspot for new cases, with 119 of the province’s 376 lab-confirmed cases detected in the city. Seventy-seven new cases were reported in the southern zone, 60 in the Regina region, 48 in the north, 50 in the central zone, and 12 in the far north.

The hometowns of 10 of the newly confirmed cases were pending.

The number of cases reported don’t include positive results from rapid antigen tests.

While a total of 12 new deaths were included in the latest report, the ministry noted that four of them occurred in previous weeks and are only being reported now. Eight of the newly reported deaths were among people 80 or older, while two were in the 40-to-59 age group and two were between the ages of 60 and 69.

As of Saturday, 1,376 people had died of COVID in Saskatchewan.

Hospitalization numbers dropped as well.

According to the report, 90 people were in hospital for a COVID-related illness as of Wednesday, a decline of seven from the previous week. There also were 150 incidental COVID infections and 18 cases were being investigated.

There were a total of 258 hospital patients with COVID in the province, the ministry reported, and that figure has dropped by 12 since the previous report last week.

Only 5.5 per cent of laboratory tests for COVID were positive this week, a drop from the 6.5 per cent reported last week.

According to the ministry, other respiratory viruses now have a higher test positivity rate than COVID, including influenza, which has a test positivity rate of 13.8 per cent.

Long-term care homes continue to struggle with the virus, with five outbreaks reported this week, three of which were in Saskatoon. The remaining two outbreaks occurred in each of the Regina and northeast zones.

Vaccination update

As of Saturday, 85.9 per cent of Saskatchewan’s population five years and older had received at least one dose of the COVID vaccine. Eighty-one per cent of that same group were fully vaccinated, and 52.4 per cent of adults had received at least on booster dose.

“Overall in Saskatchewan, the rates of COVID-19 hospitalization, ICU admission and deaths are higher among people who are unvaccinated than among people with two or three vaccinations,” the latest report read.