According to the province’s bi-weekly respiratory illness surveillance report their is an increase of COVID-19 cases in the province.
As of Oct. 13, the Ministry of Health launched the community respiratory illness surveillance program (CRISP) report to integrate COVID-19 surveillance and reporting with provincial respiratory illness and surveillance reporting, including influenza.
The report standardizes the epidemiological information required for respiratory illness surveillance and risk management and will be issued bi-weekly during respiratory illness season.
The reporting period was from Oct. 9 to Oct. 22.
For the week of Oct. 16 to 22, 2022, there were 666 COVID-19 cases (55 were 0 to 19 years; 231 were 20 to 59 years and 380 were 60 years and older). This was increase from the week of Oct. 9 to 15 when there were 488 cases reported.
Test positivity has increased from 9.8 per cent to 11.6 per cent. The highest test positivity (22.4 per cent) is in South East (Weyburn/Estevan area).
These are only lab confirmed cases and not rapid antigen test confirmed cases.
The province warns that rates should be interpreted with caution because they do not include cases detected by home rapid-antigen test kits.
In the past two weeks, there have been 26 deaths in COVD-19 cases, three in the 20 to 59 age group, and 23 in the 60 years or older group.
It is not known how many deaths occurred in North Central over this time period. The majority of the deaths were in the 60 plus age group according to the report.
The report shows there are currently 187 hospital admissions, and eight ICU admissions.
COVID-19 hospitalizations remained plateaued since beginning of August at approximately 176 admissions per week; ICU admissions remain stable at approximately 10 per week
Currently, the Omicron sublineages BA.4/BA.5 are the most commonly detected variants of concern with BA.5 dominant.
The province reported 16 new outbreaks in Long Term Care, care homes and personal care homes total between Sept. 11 and Oct. 13. Locations of the outbreaks are no longer reported.
From Oct. 16 to 22, there were 30,137 doses of COVID-19 vaccine administered, of which 26,997 were additional boosters.
With the exception of Regina, all areas of the province have less than 50 per cent of their population up-to-date for COVID-19 vaccines and less than half of individuals aged 50+ have had an additional booster dose (40 per cent). Of those that have received a booster, only 16 per cent have received their latest dose in the last six months.
