In the weekly COVID-19 integrated epidemiological (EPI) report showed a decrease in hospitalizations and 37 deaths related to COVOD-19 reported between Feb. 13 to 19.
During this time span, there were nine deaths reported in North Central.
There were also seven deaths reported in Regina, six in Saskatoon, six in the adjacent North West, two in the adjacent North East, four in Central East, seven in South East and one in the South West zone.
Seven of these deaths were in the 70 to 79 age group, 26 were in the 80 or older age group, three were in the 60 to 69 age group and 1 was in the 20 to 39 age group, or these 22 were female and 15 were male.
The report shows 372 COVID-19 hospitalizations, a decrease of 38 from the previous week’s report.
Of these 149 were for COVID-19 related illness, 204 were incidental infection and 19 had yet to be determined.
The province also reported 101 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in North Central from Feb. 13 to 19.
This was among 1,407 total cases confirmed in the province. These are only lab confirmed cases and not rapid antigen test confirmed cases.
There were 230 new cases in the North zones; North West had 88 cases, North Central had101 cases and North East had 41cases.
The Saskatoon Zone led the province with 237 new cases.
The highest proportion of new cases for the week was in Far North West Zone (1.8 per 1,000) and the lowest was the Saskatoon zone (0.7 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 162variants of concern (VOCs) reported during the week of February 13 to 19 compared to 242 VOCs in the previous week.
Of the total VOCs reported this week, 100 per cent were Omicron VOC compared to 99.6 per cent in 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 two new outbreaks in Long Term Care, care homes and personal care homes. One new outbreak 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 80.1 per cent completed a series of two doses.
The Regina zone at 81.8 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.
