The latest weekly COVID-19 update from the Ministry of Health indicates hospitalizations have gone up seven from 299 to 306. There is an increase in ICU care of one, at 19, for the week ending March 23rd. For the week of March 13th through the 19th, there were 33 COVID-related deaths. This brings the pandemic death toll to 1,211 in Saskatchewan. Sixty-seven per cent of the new deaths were in those ages 80 and older. When it comes to new cases, the province reported 895 new infections between March 13th and 19th. Of the 33 new deaths, the province says 14 occurred within the week and the remaining 19 happened over the course of January 25th to March 12th and were reported this week.
Below is a summary of the latest report:
Summary for the week of March 13-19, 2022
7,488 laboratory tests were performed in Saskatchewan reflecting 6.2 tests performed per 1,000 population.
The number of tests was about 10 per cent higher than the number of tests in the previous week (6,826).
More than one in nine laboratory tests were positive (weekly test positivity of 11.7 per cent), similar to the previous week.
895 new cases were confirmed reflecting about 0.7 laboratory-confirmed cases per 1,000 population.
The number of new laboratory-confirmed cases was about eight per cent higher than the number of new cases in the previous week (832).
There were 147 new lineage results reported this week. Of the 147 variants of concern identified by whole genome sequencing, all were Omicron.
The Omicron BA.2 sublineage accounted for 25.9 per cent of the VOCs reported this week, an increase from 5.4 per cent the previous week.
There were 33 newly reported COVID-19 deaths, about 18 per cent more than in the previous week (28).
There were 29.7 COVID-like illness patients per 1,000 emergency department visits which is lower than the average weekly rate in the previous six weeks (38.1 per week/1,000 visits).
Ten (10) confirmed COVID-19 outbreaks in long-term care and care home settings were reported this week.
As of March 19, of the population five years and older, 85.7 per cent received at least one dose of a two-dose COVID-19 vaccine and 80.5 per cent completed a series.
Among the population 18 years and older, 51.2 per cent had received at least one booster vaccination.
As of the week of March 21, there have been 113 Paxlovid prescriptions provided and 280 monoclonal antibody infusion treatments administered.
More than 19.2 million rapid antigen test kits that have been distributed in the province. They are easily accessible at 630
locations.
