Murray Wood: Who's being fooled this April 1?
Murray Wood says every day is April Fools Day in the disinformation age and, as ever, some people will never believe the...
Saskatchewan reported four deaths due to each of COVID-19 and influenza in the final two weeks of December.
According to the Community Respiratory Illness Surveillance Program report issued Friday by the Ministry of Health, three people died as a result of COVID in the week of Dec. 17-23 and one died in the week ending Saturday.
All four of the deaths were in the 60-and-over age group.
Since the pandemic started, COVID has claimed the lives of 2,039 people in Saskatchewan.
The ministry said there were two flu-related deaths in each week included in the latest report. The ages of those people weren’t included in the report.
Since Nov. 11, at least 25 people in the province have died after contracting the flu.
COVID-19
The number of lab-confirmed COVID cases in Saskatchewan fell for an eighth straight week, dropping from 496 in the week ending Nov. 11 to 202 in the week ending Saturday.
The test positivity rate last week was 10.1 per cent, down from 15.5 per cent in the reporting period ending Remembrance Day.
The ministry noted that EG.5 and its sublineages were the most-detected COVID variants in the province, but a new variant — JN. 1 — is a new variant of interest (VOI) at 12.3 per cent.
The number of hospitalizations due to COVID fell from 93 in the first week of December to 46 last week. COVID-related ICU admissions also dropped, from seven in the week ending Dec. 9 to two in the last week of the month.
Among people aged six months and over, 17.3 per cent have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine since Sept. 18.
Influenza
Like COVID, the number of lab-confirmed flu cases in Saskatchewan also declined over the month.
There were 228 cases detected last week, down from 867 in the first week of December. The test positivity rate fell to 13.7 per cent from 31.1 per cent over the same time frame.
“All geographical locations reported a decrease in the test positivity,” the report said.
However, six regions — Far North East, North East, Central West, Central East, South West and South East — reported test positivity rates that were higher than the provincial average of 13.7 per cent.
Flu-related hospitalizations went from 127 in the first week of the month to 41 last week, while ICU admissions dropped from 18 to five over that time frame.
As of Dec. 30, 23.2 per cent of Saskatchewan residents had received a flu shot this season.
Respiratory Syncytial Virus
Unlike COVID and the flu, lab-confirmed cases of RSV increased over the month.
The number went from 65 in the first week of December to 84 in the week ending Saturday. The test positivity rate has gone from 2.7 per cent to 6.0 per cent in that time.
The ministry said RSV hospitalizations have risen by 147 per cent over the past two weeks, going from 21 between Dec. 3 and Dec. 16 to 52 for the most recent two weeks.
