Saskatchewan reports another 16 COVID-related deaths, one due to influenza

Saskatchewan recorded 16 COVID-related deaths and one death due to influenza over the past four weeks.

In the latest Community Respiratory Illness Surveillance Program report, which was released Thursday, the Ministry of Health said all of the COVID-related deaths were people over the age of 60.

Since March of 2020, 1,977 Saskatchewan residents have died due to COVID-19.

The report didn’t include details of the person who died due to the flu.

According to the report, the number of lab-confirmed COVID cases in the province fell from 162 in the week of April 23-29 to 93 in the week that ended Saturday.

The ministry said influenza activity in the province over the past four weeks increased, which the report said “is not typical for this time of year.”

The report noted Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) “has reached the point of inactivity,” saying there were just two lab-confirmed cases in the week ending Saturday.

COVID-19

Test positivity for the virus was 6.2 per cent last week, down from 8.8 per cent in the last week of April.

The number of COVID-related hospitalizations last week was 34, a decrease from 62 in the week of April 23-29. ICU admissions due to the virus fell from six to three over the month.

The report said the COVID-19 wastewater viral load in Regina and Saskatoon remained at moderate-high and moderate, respectively, while North Battleford, Prince Albert and Yorkton remained low.

“The trajectory is decreasing in all province areas except for Saskatoon and Prince Albert,” the report said.

Of those aged five and over in Saskatchewan, seven per cent have received their latest COVID booster dose in the past six months. Only 21 per cent of people in the province aged 12 and up have received a bivalent booster dose.

Only 47 per cent of individuals aged 50 and over have had more than one booster dose.

Influenza

According to the ministry, the test positivity rate for the flu rose from 2.4 per cent in the last week of April to 4.5 per cent in the seven-day period ending Saturday. The inter-seasonal threshold for influenza is a test positivity of 2.0 per cent.

The report didn’t include a reason why the rate was increasing.

Hospitalization rates due to the flu also have gone up, rising from four over the four-week period ending April 22 to 26 over the past four weeks. ICU admissions also have increased, going from one to four over the past month.

Other Respiratory Viruses

Lab test positivity for RSV dropped from 1.0 per cent to 0.4 per cent over the span of the past four weeks.

There were eight RSV-related hospitalizations in the past four weeks, down from 18 in the previous month. The number of ICU admissions due to RSV fell to two in the latest four-week reporting period from six in the previous four weeks.