In the weekly COVID-19 integrated epidemiological (EPI) report showed 44 deaths related to COVID-19 reported between Feb. 19 and 26.
During this time span, there were 11 deaths reported in North Central, which was the high number in the province.
There were also nine deaths reported in Regina, four in Saskatoon, two in the adjacent North West, one in the adjacent North East, five in Central East, two in the Central West, five in South East two in the South East, two in the South Central and one in the Far North West.
Eight of these deaths were in the 70 to 79 age group, 24 were in the 80 or older age group, seven were in the 60 to 69 age group and five were in the 50 to 59 age group, of these 18 were female and 26 were male
The report shows 353 COVID-19 hospitalizations, a decrease of 19 from the previous week’s report
Of these 151 were for COVID-19 related illness, 183 were incidental infection and 19 had yet to be determined
The province also reported 76 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in North Central from Feb. 19 to 26.
This was among 1,102 total cases confirmed in the province. These are only lab confirmed cases and not rapid antigen test confirmed cases.
The Regina Zone led the province with 268 new cases.
The highest proportion of new cases for the week was in South West Zone (1.3 per 1,000) and the lowest was the Far North East zone (0.4 per 1,000).
The province warns that rates should be interpreted with caution because they do not include cases detected by home rapid-antigen test kits
There were 506 variants of concern (VOCs) reported during the week of February 19 to 26 compared to 242 VOCs in the previous week
Of the total VOCs reported this week, 100 per cent were Omicron VOC which was the same as the previous week.
The report also said that the Omicron VOC has rapidly increased since the first week of January and became the dominant variant in Saskatchewan
The province also reported 11 new outbreaks in Long Term Care, care homes and personal care homes. No new outbreaks in a long-term care home was reported in North Central
As of February 19, of the population five years and older 85.5 per cent received at least one dose of a two-dose COVID-19 vaccine and 80.3 per cent completed a series of two doses.
The Regina zone at 82.3 per cent is the only zone reporting over 80 per cent of the eligible population with a completed vaccination series. All other zones are below 80 per cent.
