COVID-19 in Sask.: 20 new deaths announced in weekly report

Twenty more Saskatchewanians have died from COVID-19, per the province's weekly COVIDreport.

The data is for the week ofMarch 20 to 26.

Though free PCR testing has fallen off and is largely inaccessible to the general population, the number of new laboratory-confirmed cases was about 34 per centhigher than the number of new cases in the previous week.

While the Regina zone had the lowest testing rate (1.8 tests per 1,000 population), it also had the highest test positivity rate at 18.2 per cent.

For emergency department visits, there were 25.7 COVID-like illness patients per 1,000 visits this reporting period. That's lower than theaverage weekly rate, which was calculated with six weeks' worth of data.

Hospitalization indicators are mostly up in the province:

Nineteen more people are in hospital with COVIDcompared to thelast reporting period.

The subvariant Omicron BA.2 accounted for 15.5 per cent of the variants of concern reported this week, which is down from 25.9 per centthe previous week.

Tenconfirmed COVID-19 outbreaks in long-term care and care home settings were also reported.

On the vaccine front, 80.6 per cent of the population over the age of five has completed a series of COVID-19 vaccines, while 51.3 per cent of those18 years and older have at least one booster shot.

The Regina zone is the only zone reporting more than 80 per cent of the eligible population hascompleted a vaccine series, at 82.5 per cent. All others are below 80 per cent.