The number of COVID-related deaths has gone down once again in this week’s COVID report released by the Saskatchewan Health Authority.

There were 20 COVID-related deaths in this week’s report, down from the 24 in the previous week. But there were also the same number of new laboratory-confirmed COVID cases in the province, with 1,051 compared to 1,032 in the previous week.

And hospitalizations have gone up from 354 in the previous week to 403 this week, which 25 in adult ICU compared to 20 in the previous week.

Of the deaths, one person was in the 20-39 age group, two were in the 40-59 age group, one was in their 60s and six were in their 70s. The remaining 10 were in people 80 and older.

Hospital visits with COVID-like illnesses are higher as well. The province said this week’s provincial rate of 43.4 COVID-like illness patients per 1,000 visits was higher than the previous six-week average of 32.9/1,000 visits.

Of the population five years and older, 85.7 have received one dose of a two dose COVID-19 vaccine, which is unchanged from the week prior and 80.7 have completed a series of vaccines.