COVID-19 cases are up in the province’s bi-weekly report, which covers October 9th to the 22nd. In the first full week of October, there were 474 confirmed cases of the virus, although there is no more mandated reporting, and in the last reporting week, there were 666. Twenty-six people who tested positive for the virus have died in the most recent two week reporting period. Three were between 20 and 59 years old and 23 were in the 60 and older category.

The Community Respiratory Illness Surveillance Program, or CRISP, cites that COVID hospitalizations have plateaued since the beginning of August with about 176 admissions a week, and ICU admissions at about 10 a week, on average. In the week of October 16th, there were 187 people in the hospital with COVID, including eight people in an ICU, compared to 165 in the hospital the week prior, and 14 in an ICU. The number of outbreaks in high-risk settings have increased from 12 in the week of October 9th to 16 last week.

With the exception of Regina at 52 per cent, less than half of the province is up to date on their COVID vaccines. Saskatoon’s rate is 49 per cent, and across the province 40 per cent of people over 50 have had an additional booster dose.

The CRISP report notes that flu season has begun with 15 cases detected this week, and the North Central area has the highest test positivity rate at 8.6 per cent. The flu shot campaign launched October 11th and to date, 9 per cent of the population have received their vaccination. That’s a 33 per cent decrease compared to the same time last year.

Here is the full report: CRISPREPORT20221027