How Saskatchewan’s outlook on COVID-19 changed in 2023

Medical professionals say COVID-19 is still circulating in Saskatchewan.

While not as prevalent as it has been in the past, it’s something the Saskatchewan Health Authority is still keeping its eye on.

“We want to make sure that we, as a community, do well as we have in the last few years, preventing COVID-19 illness,” said Dr. Simon Kapaj, a Saskatoon medical health officer with SHA.

According to the province’s latest report from its respiratory illness tracker, there were 569 confirmed COVID-19 cases over the two week reporting period between Dec. 3 and Dec. 16.

It shows 13 intensive care admissions and one death related to the disease over the same timeframe.

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Doctors are encouraging people to continue protecting themselves from the virus and say the best way to do that is to get vaccinated.

“We have new vaccines, reformulated vaccine, that targets specifically the variants that are circulating now,” said Nazeem Muhajarine, an epidemiology professor at the University of Saskatchewan.

One Saskatoon pharmacy said it had an early-season rush of people getting their COVID and flu shots.

“We were fully booked for the first three to four weeks, which was great and we’re still booking a few hours per day,” said pharmacist Jaclyn Katelnikoff at Saskatoon Family Pharmacy.

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But provincial data shows many in Saskatchewan don’t have their vaccinations up to date.

According to the Community Respiratory Illness Surveillance Program (CRISP) report, just 17 per cent of people six months or older have at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine on or after Sept. 18, when it became available.

It’s a similar trend for flu vaccines, with the report showing 22.5 per cent of the Saskatchewan population has its shot as of Dec. 16.

SHA’s deputy chief medical health officer believes vaccine fatigue could be behind the low numbers.

“We have had lower uptake of both COVID and influenza vaccines compared to years past, so that may point to vaccine fatigue,” Dr. Julie Kryzanowski said.

“I would say that it’s still important for people to take advantage of the publicly funded vaccines that are available to them.”

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Muhajarine said the virus will continue circulating, but believes it will have a more predictable pattern than it did early on during the pandemic.

“We are seeing high numbers in all the respiratory diseases and that’s what we’ll see for the next three to four months,” Muhajarine said.

Health professionals are reminding people to take precautions, including hand-washing and staying home when sick, to avoid illness.