COVID-19 Weekly EPI Report

Released on March 24, 2022

Increase Vaccination to Protect Your Family

Vaccinating school-age children ages 5 to 11 extends protection against COVID-19 to other children in the household, particularly those who cannot be vaccinated at this time.  There are currently no COVID-19 vaccines approved in Canada for children under five.

Even with more than 104,000 pediatric doses administered in Saskatchewan as of March 21, only 56 per cent of Saskatchewan children ages five to 11 have received their first COVID-19 vaccination and only 39 per cent have received two doses. 

While the Omicron variant may not cause the same degree of severity of outcomes as Delta, vaccination remains the best protection against COVID-19.  This is true for all age groups. 

It's never too late to get a COVID-19 vaccination.  While two doses and a booster provide optimal protection, the immune system will respond to one dose providing some protection within two weeks. You can be vaccinated even if you have previously had COVID, and vaccination provides a longer lasting protection than previous infection. 

If you have questions about the safety and effectiveness of vaccinations for children, saskatchewan.ca/covid-19 includes frequently asked questions, advice on answering questions from kids and information from physicians. 

Vaccination appointments are available now through Saskatchewan Health Authority clinics and pharmacies throughout the province. 

Weekly COVID-19 Epi Report 

Issued Thursdays, the Ministry of Health's COVID-19 integrated epidemiology (epi) report utilizes multiple data sources and includes laboratory-confirmed cases, deaths, tests, vaccination information provincially and by zones, as well as hospital and ICU census trends and distribution of rapid antigen tests. The epi report this week looks at data from Sunday, March 13 to Saturday, March 19, 2022. The hospitalization data is a comparison from Thursday, March 16 to noon March 23, 2022.

The integrated epi report can be found online at saskatchewan.ca/COVID-19-cases.

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.

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For more information, contact:

Health
Regina
Phone: 306-787-4083
Email: media@health.gov.sk.ca