Saskatchewan reports 1,013 new COVID cases, 13 deaths

The number of deaths due to COVID-19 over the past week in Saskatchewan fell by more than 70 per cent from the previous week.

The weekly epidemiological data issued by the Ministry of Health on Thursday said there had been 13 deaths reported in the province between Feb. 27 and Saturday. There were 44 COVID-related fatalities reported the week before.

The latest deaths comprised four in the Regina zone, two in the Saskatoon and central-east regions, and one in each of the far northwest, northwest, north-central, south-central and southeast areas.

Eleven of the latest fatalities were aged 80 and over. There was one death reported in each of the 20-to-39 and 40-to-59 age groups.

To date, 1,151 Saskatchewan residents have died due to COVID since the start of the pandemic.

The weekly report also said there were 1,013 new cases, with 231 of those in the Regina zone and 207 in the Saskatoon area.

As of Wednesday, there were 339 COVID patients in Saskatchewan hospitals, down from 353 the week before. There also were 24 people in intensive care units, a decrease from 30 the previous week.

The latest total included 142 patients with a COVID-related illness, 186 who were incidental infections and 11 who were still under investigation.

A look at the numbers

The new cases reported this week were detected in 7,518 laboratory tests, producing a test positivity rate of 12.7 per cent. That was down from 13.6 per cent the week earlier.

There were 637 new lineage results reported during the week, all of which were the Omicron variant. Of those, 6.3 per cent were the BA.2 sub-lineage.

There were COVID outbreaks in 17 long-term and personal care homes, with 11 in long-term care homes and six in personal care homes. The total was up from 11 last week.

As of Saturday, 85.6 per cent of people aged five and over in the province had received at least one dose of a two-dose COVID-19 vaccine and 80.4 per cent had completed a series.

Among those 18 and over, 50.9 per cent had received at least one booster vaccination.

There were 5,900 shots administered in the province in the past week. That included 4,159 boosters and 1,027 pediatric primary doses.

As of last week, 82 prescriptions of the Paxlovid pill had been issued and 231 monoclonal antibody infusion treatments had been administered.