Saskatchewan sets record for COVID hospitalizations

A record number of COVID-19 patients were in Saskatchewan hospitals as of Wednesday.

According to the weekly epidemiology report released Thursday by the Ministry of Health, there were 410 people with COVID in the province’s health-care facilities.

That was up from 384 the previous week, which tied the provincial record initially set Feb. 3.

The total announced Thursday included 221 incidental COVID infections, 181 COVID illnesses and eight that were undetermined.

More preschool-aged children went to emergency departments with COVID-like illnesses last week. That age group had a rate of 93.7 patients per 1,000 visits, up from a weekly rate of 81.2 per 1,000 visits over the previous six weeks.

From Feb. 6 through Sunday, there were 42 COVID-related deaths in the province — almost twice the 22 reported the previous week.

Nine of the latest fatalities were in the Regina region, with seven in each of the Saskatoon and central-east areas.

Of the 42 people who died in the latest reporting period, 29 were 80 and older.

As of Sunday, 1,056 Saskatchewan residents had died from COVID, with 66 per cent of those aged 80 and over.

The province said there were 22 new confirmed COVID outbreaks in long-term care (six) and care home settings (16) during the reporting period, down from 34 the previous week.

Over the past six weeks, 71 outbreaks have occurred in long-term care facilities, 53 have happened in group homes, 44 have been reported in personal care homes, and two have been in shelters.

A look at the numbers

From Feb. 6 through Sunday, 2,522 new COVID cases were confirmed in the province, less than half of the 5,401 reported the previous week.

The new cases included 603 in the Saskatoon area and 501 in the Regina region.

There were 12,079 laboratory tests performed in the province and the test positivity rate was 20.2, down nearly 11 per cent from the week ending Feb. 5. The southwest zone had the highest test positivity rate at 31.5.

There were 242 new variant of concern lineage results reported, with 99.6 per cent of them being Omicron. There was one case of the Delta variant detected in the north-central region.

As of Sunday, 85.4 per cent of Saskatchewan residents over the age of five had received at least one dose of a COVID vaccine and 79.9 per cent had got two shots.

Among those 18 and over, 50 per cent had received at least one booster shot.

As of Monday, 34 Paxlovid oral prescriptions and 189 monoclonal antibody infusion treatments had been given in Saskatchewan.