Sask. to transition to monthly reporting of COVID-19 cases

The Community Respiratory Illness Surveillance Program (CRISP) report will transition to monthly reporting statistics, according to the Saskatchewan government.

The move was announced in the latest edition of the bi-weekly report which contains COVID-19-related statistics, such as confirmed cases, hospitalizations and deaths.

“We're still making sure we’re encouraging people to get out and get the vaccination and do their own personal risk assessment in saying that a monthly report is what we've done in the past,” Saskatchewan's health minister Paul Merriman told reporters on Friday.

Merriman said the change is based on a recommendation by Chief Medical Health Officer Dr. Saqib Shahab.

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The CRISP report, released on Thursday, showed confirmed cases of COVID-19 have dropped in the province falling from 208 positive cases a week to 191, the report said.

Most cases are in patients 65 years and older (61.3 per cent) with just 28.1 per cent of those 20 to 64 having the virus in the last few weeks, the CRISP report said.

However, ICU admissions increased to 16 from 11, the report said. Four COVID-19 deaths were reported in the last two weeks.

Since, the start of the year, more than 100 people have died in Saskatchewan following a COVID-19 diagnosis.

According to the report, outside of of Regina, less than 50 per cent of the population is up-to-date on their COVID-19 vaccine booster doses. Regina's rate is sitting at 52 per cent.

"Having a COVID-19 booster in the last six months (October 1, 2022 – March 31, 2023) reduces the risk of a COVID-19 death four times compared to unvaccinated individuals and over two times compared to those without a booster dose," the report says.

The province says 12 per cent of those five and older have received a booster dose in the last six months.

Only 21 per cent of the population has received a bivalent booster dose, according to the province.

The bivalent booster is tailor-made to help fight the dominant Omicron variant which is responsible for almost all new COVID-19 infections in the province.

INFLUENZA

Influenza activity across the province fluctuated at low levels with type B activity accounting for most cases, the government said.

There were six cases reported in those aged 20 to 64 years, four cases for school-age children and two cases in preschool-age patients. One influenza-related death was reported in the past four weeks, the report said.

Twenty-seven per cent of the provincial population has received the influenza vaccine. That represents a nine per cent drop in doses compared to last year, the province says.