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The month of February was one of the deadliest in Saskatchewan for COVID-19.
According to the weekly epidemiological report from the Ministry of Health, 44 people died of COVID between Feb. 20 and this past Saturday.
That raised the total since Feb. 1 to 145, the third-highest total in a month in Saskatchewan since the pandemic started. The only months with higher announced totals were October of 2021 (156 deaths) and January of 2021 (151).
The data released by the government didn’t include figures from Sunday and Monday, meaning the death toll for February could still rise.
The latest deaths comprised 11 in the north-central zone, nine in the Regina region, five in each of the southeast and central-east areas, four in the Saskatoon zone, two in each of the northwest, central-west, southwest and south-central regions and one in each of the far northwest and northeast zones.
Twenty-four of the latest fatalities were in the 80-and-over age range, eight were people in their 70s, seven were individuals in their 60s, and five were between the ages of 40 and 59.
To date, 1,137 Saskatchewan residents have died due to COVID.
A look at the numbers
There were 1,102 new cases reported during the week, including 268 in the Regina region and 191 in the Saskatoon zone. There were 1,407 positive cases reported the previous week.
The latest weekly total was detected in 7,833 laboratory tests for a test positivity rate of 13.6 per cent. That number was 14.4 per cent the week before.
As of Wednesday, there were 353 COVID patients in Saskatchewan hospitals, down from 372 the week before.
The latest total comprised 181 incidental COVID infections, 151 COVID-related cases and 19 that were undetermined.
There were 30 COVID patients in intensive care, up from 27 a week earlier.
There were 506 new variant of concern lineage results reported this week, with all of them being the Omicron variant. Of those, 63 were the BA.2 sub-lineage of Omicron.
There were 11 outbreaks confirmed in care home settings, with eight in long-term care facilities and three in personal care homes.
As of Saturday, 85.5 per cent of the province’s population aged five and up had received at least one dose of a two-dose COVID-19 vaccine and 80.3 per cent had completed a series.
Of those 18 and older in Saskatchewan, 50.7 per cent had got at least one booster shot. Of those 12 and over, 47 per cent had received a booster.
