Flu numbers drop, COVID and RSV numbers stay relatively steady in Sask.

Influenza was on the wane in Saskatchewan over the first two weeks of 2023.

According to the Community Respiratory Illness Surveillance Program report issued Thursday by the Ministry of Health, the number of positive laboratory tests for the flu fell from 69 in the last week of December to 32 in the first week of January. It decreased further to 21 in the week that ended Saturday.

The test positivity rate for the flu has fallen from 5.0 per cent three weeks ago to 1.5 per cent as of this past Saturday. There weren’t any flu outbreaks or influenza-related deaths reported in either of the first two weeks of January, the report noted.

While flu numbers decreased, COVID-19 and Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) cases increased in the first week of January from the previous seven days, but then fell in the week ending Saturday.

There were 302 COVID cases confirmed by lab testing in the final week of December in Saskatchewan. That number rose to 371 between Jan. 1 and Jan. 7 before falling to 317 in the seven-day period ending Saturday.

The test positivity rate fell to 5.4 per cent from 6.9 per cent a week earlier.

There were 16 COVID-related deaths reported in the first two weeks of 2023 — 11 in the first seven days of January and five between Jan. 8 and last Saturday.

Confirmed RSV cases went from 176 in the last week of December to 199 in the first week of January. There were 159 confirmed cases in the week ending Saturday.

The test positivity rate for RSV last week was 14.5 per cent, the same as it was in the final week of December.

According to the data, the school illness absenteeism rate was 8.6 per cent last week, up from 4.6 per cent in the first week of January.

COVID-19

There were 10 outbreaks reported in high-risk settings in Saskatchewan in the week ending Saturday, up from six in the previous seven days.

The number of COVID-related hospitalizations in the province fell to 81 this past week from 119 the week before. ICU admissions due to COVID decreased from 10 in the first week of the month to seven last week.

Only 46 per cent of people aged 50 and over in Saskatchewan have had more than one booster dose of a COVID vaccine.

Influenza

Hospitalizations due to the flu fell over the past two weeks in the province.

In the last week of December, there were 16 people in hospital due to the flu. That number decreased to seven in each of the past two weeks.

ICU admissions went from four in the final week of December to one in the first week of January, but that number rose to three in the week ending Saturday.

As of Dec. 31, 25 per cent of people in Saskatchewan had received a flu shot, an increase of one per cent from the previous reporting period. However, it’s a decrease of 12 per cent compared to the same time last year.

Other Respiratory Viruses

As of Saturday, 50 per cent of the RSV cases in the province were children aged four and under, and 30 per cent were seniors.

ICU admissions due to RSV rose from four in the final week of December to eight in each of the past two weeks.

RSV hospitalizations went from 53 in the final week of December to 66 in the first week of January. That number dropped to 59 in the week ending Saturday.

Other respiratory viruses fluctuated between 120 to 145 lab confirmations per week over the past month.