Virus cases spike: COVID, Flu and RSV Infections on the rise

By Ian MacKay

Virus infections took a steep jump during the most recent week covered in a provincial report.

The number of Saskatchewan residents who tested positive for the virus that causes Covid-19 rose to 92 during the week of Nov. 23-29 after 65 the week before.

The count of those found positive for influenza leapt by almost 100, to 258 from 160, and the RSV total more than doubled, to 31 from 14, a chart showed.

Health Department staff issued the latest update on Dec. 5. Nobody in the province died from either virus during the previous four weeks, according to the chart.

One person in the department’s west-central region tested positive for the coronavirus that causes covid and four tested positive for the flu.

In spite of the higher test numbers, hospitals admitted 17 people with covid during Nov. 23-29, down from 22 the week earlier, but three of them needed intensive care after none did during the previous week, the chart showed.

Hospital admittances for the flu reached 25, after 21, 22 and 18 the three previous weeks and a total of 10 people - two or three a week - required intensive care. One of the eight people admitted with RSV during Nov. 23-29 needed intensive care.

The 89 people diagnosed as sick with covid during Nov. 23-29 included 36 aged between 20 and 64, 32 people 65 or older, 10 toddlers and nine aged five to 19.

The 20-65 age group had 93 people sick with the flu, along with 81 aged five to 19 years old, 32 under five and 27 who were 65 or over.

Eighteen of the 31 with RSV were under five, along with five each in the two oldest groups and three among the five to 19 age group.

The percentage of residents who’d received a vaccination against the coronavirus rose to 12.9 per cent during Nov. 23-29 from 12.4 per cent the week earlier and, for the flu, to 18.7 per cent from 17.9 per cent.