Saskatchewan reports 10 COVID deaths, one flu death in past two weeks

Saskatchewan announced 10 deaths due to COVID-19 and one due to influenza in its latest Community Respiratory Illness Surveillance Program report.

In the biweekly report issued Thursday, the Ministry of Health said nine people aged 60 and over and one person between the ages of 20 and 59 had died as a result of COVID over the past two weeks.

Eight of the deaths were reported between March 26 and April 1, while two occurred between April 2 and this past Saturday.

Since March of 2020, 1,951 Saskatchewan residents have died due to COVID.

The flu-related death occurred in the week of March 26 to April 1. No other information about that person was available.

COVID-19

According to the report, there were 170 lab-confirmed COVID cases in the province in the week ending last Saturday. That’s the fewest cases reported in a week since the province moved to biweekly reporting.

The test positivity rate dropped to 8.2 per cent from 10.5 per cent the week before.

Hospitalizations due to COVID have dropped over the past three weeks. There were 100 COVID patients in Saskatchewan hospitals (including 10 in intensive care) in the week of March 19-25, but that number fell to 64 (with five in ICU) in the week that ended Saturday.

The report said Regina’s wastewater viral load increased to high in the past week, while the viral load decreased in Saskatoon, North Battleford, Prince Albert and Swift Current week over week.

“Of those aged five years and older, 17 per cent have received their latest booster dose in the last six months,” the report said. “With the exception of Regina, all areas of the province have less than 50 per cent of their population up to date for COVID-19 vaccines.”

The ministry said only 21 per cent of people over the age of 12 have received a bivalent booster dose, and only 47 per cent of people over the age of 50 have had more than one booster dose.

Influenza

The number of lab-confirmed flu cases in the province has remained relatively stable over the past month. There were eight cases reported in the week of March 12-18 and seven cases detected in the week that ended Saturday.

The test positivity rate also has stayed constant, falling from 1.0 per cent four weeks ago to 0.9 per cent last week.

There was one person admitted to hospital with the flu two weeks ago, and that person was in the ICU. There weren’t any flu-related hospitalizations last week.

As of March 31, only 27 per cent of Saskatchewan people had received a flu shot, a decrease of nine per cent from the same time last year.

Other respiratory viruses

The report said lab-confirmed respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) cases continued to fall over the past month. There were 11 cases detected last week, down from 30 a month earlier.

The test positivity rate for RSV has dropped from 4.0 per cent to 1.6 per cent over the past four weeks.

However, RSV hospitalizations rose to nine in the week ending Saturday from four in the week of March 12-18. There were two RSV-associated ICU admissions last week.