The weekly COVID-19 integrated epidemiological (EPI) report showed a decrease in hospitalizations and 13 deaths related to COVOD-19 reported between Feb. 27 to March 5.
During this time span, there was one death reported in North Central.
There were also four deaths reported in Regina, two in Saskatoon, one in the adjacent North West, two in the Central East seven in Central West, one in the South East and one in the South West.
Of these there were 11 in the 80 or older age group and one each in the 20 to 39 and 40 to 59 age groups. Seven deaths were in males and six deaths were females.
The report shows 339 COVID-19 hospitalizations, a decrease of 14 from last week. There were 24 individuals reported in the ICU.
Of these 142 were COVID-19 related illness, 186 were incidental COVID-19 infections and 12 patients were under investigation.
The province also reported 52 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in North Central from Feb. 27 to March 5.
This was among 1,103 total cases confirmed in the province. These are only lab confirmed cases and not rapid antigen test confirmed cases.
The 1,013 new cases were confirmed reflecting about 0.8 laboratory-confirmed cases per 1,000 population.
The Saskatoon Zone led the province with 603 new cases.
The highest proportion of new cases for the week was in the South Central zone (1.3 per 1,000). Of zones with confirmed cases, the lowest rate was in the Far North East zone (0.4 per 1,000).
The proportion of new laboratory-confirmed cases was 0.8 per 1,000, a decrease of 0.1 per 1,000 since last week. This was lower than the weekly rate in the previous four weeks (January 30 to February 26, 2022) by 1.3 cases per 1,000 population.
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 627 variants of concern (VOCs) reported during the week of Feb. 27 to March 5 compared to 500 in the previous report.
Of the total VOCs reported this week, 100% were Omicron VOC compared to 100% in the previous week.
The province said that the proportion of Delta VOC declined rapidly, and has not been reported in the past three weeks.
The province also reported 17 new outbreaks in Long Term Care, care homes and personal care homes. There is one new outbreak in Long Term Care in the North East zone and one in personal care homes. In North Central two personal care home outbreaks were reported.
As of March 5, of the population five years andolder, 85.6 per cent received at least one dose of a two-dose COVID-19 vaccine and 80.4 per cent had completed two doses.
Among the population 18 years and older, 50.9 per cent had received at least one booster vaccination.
