The Grade 4 class at Red Wing school works away on its Chromebooks. (submitted photo/Lisa Campbell)

By Susan McNeil

Respiratory outbreaks

14 per cent of students absent in North Central: CRISP report

Dec 8, 2022 | 5:00 PM

Just over 14 per cent of students in the North Central area were absent in the last two weeks in the latest update on respiratory illnesses from the province.

The North Central rate was slightly lower than the provincial average of 15 per cent of students not in class.

In the nearby North East district (Melfort, Nipawin, Tisdale and area), absenteeism reached 16 per cent. The highest rate in Saskatchewan, however, is in the south with over 20 per cent of students in the Weyburn and Estevan area missing class.

The province also reported another 41 COVID deaths in the two weeks between November 20 and December 3. One person was in the 20 to 59 age range and the others were 60 or older.

Test positivity for COVID in the North Central zone is 7.1 per cent while the rate for influenza is 29.5 per cent.

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There were 132 persons for every 1,000 residents going to emergency departments with a respiratory-like illness.

While very few of the COVID-related hospitalizations are amongst children, almost one-third of those in hospital for flu are younger than 19 and all of the nearly 40 patients with RSV in hospital are children.

There are 23 children who were admitted to hospital with RSV and five were placed in the ICU, which is nearly double the rate of the previous reporting period when 11 children were hospitalized and two needed intensive care.

Of the 259 people admitted to Saskatchewan hospitals with a respiratory illness in the last week, 117 were from COVID, 86 were due to influenza, 23 were from RSV, and 27 had other causes. Six people had multiple infections.

That is a reduction from the previous week’s admissions when 155 people were admitted for COVID disease, 113 for flu, 11 for RSV, 34 for other reasons and 17 people had more than one virus.

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susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com