Saskatchewan has released the last weekly COVID-19 report before moving to monthly reporting.

A 3-week COVID report will be released on July 21st, and the first monthly report will be released on August 18th.

For the week of June 19-25, there were 5-thousand 372 tests performed with 208 of them coming back positive – both decreases from the previous week.

This brings the weekly test positivity rate down to 3.8 percent.

Total COVID patients in hospital also went down by 38 to 119, and ICU patients decreased to 4. Three deaths due to COVID-19 were recorded – two within the week and one that occurred June 18 – down from the previous week’s 12 deaths.

Three confirmed COVID-19 outbreaks in long-term care and care home settings were reported this week.

The weekly report can be found here.

Summary for the week of June 19 – 25, 2022

• 5,372 laboratory tests were performed in Saskatchewan reflecting 4.5 tests performed per 1,000 population. The number of tests was lower than the number of tests in the previous week (5,635).
• The weekly test positivity of 3.8 per cent, is lower than the previous week (4.0 per cent); the highest test positivity this week was in the South East zone (9.6 per cent).
• 208 new cases were confirmed reflecting 17 laboratory-confirmed cases per 100,000 population, lower than the number of new cases in the previous week (231).
• The majority of laboratory-confirmed cases this week continue to be 50 years and older (57.2 per cent).
• There were 168 new lineage results reported this week. Of the 168 variants of concern identified by whole genome sequencing, 100 per cent were Omicron. The Omicron BA.2 sublineage accounted for 95.2 per cent of the variants of concern reported the week of June 19 to 25, 2022.  BA.2 sublineage is more transmissible compared to pre-variant 2020 COVID-19 and BA.1 sub-lineages but there is no current evidence of increased severity.  BA.5 sublineage detections accounted for 3.6 per cent this week.
• There were three (3) newly-reported COVID-19 deaths (two within the week, and one that occurred earlier (June 18, 2022). This is a decrease from the previous week (12).
• There were 28.4 COVID-like illness patients per 1,000 emergency department visits which is an increase from last week (18.6 per 1,000).
• Three (3) confirmed COVID-19 outbreaks in long-term care and care home settings were reported this week.
• Immunization rates for primary series and booster uptake have remained stable over the last four weeks. Of the eligible populations five and older, 81.2% have completed a series.
• Among the population 18 years and older, 52.8 per cent had received at least one booster vaccination.
• As of June 26, 2022, there have been 574 Paxlovid prescriptions filled, and there have been 43 Remdesivir prescriptions with a total of 121 infusions completed.
• Over 21.4 million rapid antigen test kits have been distributed in the province. They are easily accessible at more than 600 locations.