The weekly COVID-19 integrated epidemiological (EPI) report showed an increase in hospitalizations related to COVID-19 for the third consecutive report. Numbers were reported between April 10 to April 16.
There were also 22 deaths reported over this time, an increase of two over the previous week. Eight of those deaths occurred prior to April 2, but were not reported as COVID deaths until the following week. The remaining 13 deaths occurred between April 10 to April 16.
One death did not report a date of death, as of yet.
North Central reported two COVID deaths. There were five deaths reported in the adjacent North West zone, six reported in Regina, three reported in the Central East and South Central, two were reported in the South East and one was reported in Saskatoon.
Of these there were 12 reported in the 80 or older age groups, seven reported in the 70 to 79 age group, two in the 40 to 59 age group and one reported in the 40 to 59 age group, 13 deaths were females and seven deaths were males.
The report shows 417 COVID-19 hospitalizations, an increase of 14 from last week. There were 25 individuals reported in the ICU, the same number as from the previous week.
Of these 160 were COVID-19 related illness, 225 were incidental COVID-19 infections and 32 patients were under investigation.
The province also reported 53 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in North Central from April 10 to April 16.
This was among 890 total cases confirmed in the province. These are only lab confirmed cases and not rapid antigen test confirmed cases.
The 1,051 new cases were confirmed reflecting about 0.7 laboratory-confirmed cases per 1,000 population.
The Saskatoon Zone led the province with 258 new cases.
The highest proportion of new cases for the week was in Central West zone, at 1.0 per 1,000 population. Of zones with positive cases, the Far North East had the lowest proportion (0.3 per 1,000 population).
The proportion of new laboratory-confirmed cases was 0.9 per 1,000 population, unchanged from the last week.
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 539 variants of concern (VOCs) reported during the week of April 10 to April 16 compared to 375 in the previous report.
Of the total VOCs reported in the past two weeks, 100 per cent were the Omicron VOCs.
As well, 61.4 per cent of Omicron VOC were of sublineage BA.2 which was an increase over the previous report. The Omicron BA.2 sublineage is being seen across the province.
The province also reported 18 new outbreaks in Long Term Care, care homes and personal care homes. There were no new outbreaks reported in the North Central zone in the reporting period.
As of April 2, of the population five years and older, 85.8 per cent received at least one dose of a two-dose COVID-19 vaccine and 80.8 per cent completed a series.
Among the population 18 years and older, 51.7 per cent had received at least one booster vaccination.
During the week of April 10 to 16, 10,213 doses of COVID-19 vaccine were administered, of which 346 were pediatric doses and 9,553 were booster doses.
