The weekly COVID-19 integrated epidemiological (EPI) report showed a decrease in hospitalizations along with 28 deaths in Saskatchewan related to COVOD-19 reported between March 5 to March 12.
There were 28 deaths reported over this time, an increase over 13 over the previous week.
Of those 13 deaths, six were reported in North Central.
There were also six deaths reported in Regina, three in Saskatoon, two in the adjacent North East, one in the adjacent North West, two in the Central East, five in Central West, two in the South East and one in the South West.
Of this week’s newly reported deaths, 22 occurred within the week. The other six deaths occurred in previous weeks (Feb. 6 to March 5), but were reported this week.
Of these there were 19 in the 80 or older groups, two in the 70 to 79 age group, two in the 60 to 69 age group, four in the 40 to 59 age group and one in the 20 to 39 age group. Fifteen deaths were in males and 13 deaths were females.
The report shows 299 COVID-19 hospitalizations, a decrease of 37 from last week. There were 24 individuals reported in the ICU, which was no change from the previous week.
Of these 142 were COVID-19 related illness, 186 were incidental COVID-19 infections and 12 patients were under investigation.
The province also reported 46 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in North Central from March 5 to March 12.
This was among 832 total cases confirmed in the province. These are only lab confirmed cases and not rapid antigen test confirmed cases.
The 833 new cases were confirmed reflecting about 0.7 laboratory-confirmed cases per 1,000 population.
The Saskatoon Zone led the province with 229 new cases.
The highest proportion of new cases for the week was in North East zone (1.1 per 1,000). Of zones with confirmed cases, the lowest was in the Far North West zone (0.3 per 1,000).
The proportion of new laboratory-confirmed cases was 0.7 per 1,000, a decrease of 0.1 per 1,000 since last week. It was also lower than the weekly rate in the previous four weeks (Febr. 6 to March 5) by 0.6 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 350 variants of concern (VOCs) reported during the week of March 5 to March 12 compared to 637 in the previous report.
Of the total VOCs reported this week, 99.7% were Omicron VOC compared to 100% in the previous week.
The province said that the proportion of Delta VOC declined rapidly, and only one has been reported in the past month.
The province also reported 10 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 March 12, of the population five years and older, 85.6 per cent received at least one dose of a two-dose COVID-19 vaccine and 80.5 per cent had completed two doses.
Among the population 18 years and older, 51 per cent had received at least one booster vaccination.
