Sask. identifies new 55 Omicron infections

Saskatchewan identified 55 more cases of the Omicron variant on Monday, bringing the province’s total to 65.

According to the province, there are 10 confirmed cases of the Omicron variant and 55 probable cases detected via screening.

Saskatchewan epidemiologist Nazeem Muhajarine said he is not surprised with the way Omicron is “packing a punch” in the province.

“We in Saskatchewan couldn’t stop it at the border,” Muhajarine said. “It was only going to be a matter of time before we begin to see community spread.”

Evidence shows Omicron can “evade” vaccine-induced COVID-19 immunity, according to Muhajrine, and two doses are less effective against Omicron than other variants.

“This all goes to show how different Omicron is compared to the different variants, how quickly it spreads and how effectively it can breach that first line of defense; therefore how important it is for people in Saskatchewan to get their booster dose,” Muhajarine said. “The time to get that third dose is right now.”

He says in the last few days daily new cases have been “tapering off” and “bottoming out.” However, he suggests the 55 probable cases of Omicron could be the start of another increase.

“We have just come out of the fourth wave,” he said. “I was hoping that many people who were infected in the fourth wave… would have developed COVID-19 induced immunity.”

COVID-19 CASES

Saskatchewan is also reporting 59 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday.

Of the new cases, 27 were unvaccinated, one was partially vaccinated and 31 were fully vaccinated.

There are 565 active cases of COVID-19, with 70 more recoveries reported.

There are 102 Saskatchewan residents being treated for COVID-19 in hospital, including 32 in ICU. Of the hospitalized patients, 63 were not fully vaccinated.

New cases are located in the North West (one), North Central (two), Saskatoon (25), Central West (one), Central East (eight), Regina (16), South West (one), South Central (one) and South East (four).

The seven-day average of new COVID-19 cases was 59, or 4.9 new cases per 100,000 people.

Health care workers have administered 1,786,599 doses of COVID-19 vaccines – up 1,223 from Sunday.

OMICRON YET TO BE DETECTED IN WASTEWATER

The Saskatchewan government is not releasing where the new Omicron cases are being detected in the province.

However, one University of Regina researcher who studies COVID-19 viral levels in wastewater says the most recent data suggests “we do not have any significant amount of Omicron cases in the city.”

“If there are already cases in the city, it’s not enough that we can actually see it in wastewater,” said molecular microbiologist Tzu-Chiao Chao.

Chao’s team has been sending wastewater samples to the national microbiology lab. So far, they have not detected any Omicron in those samples.

According to the wastewater data, the amount of COVID-19 was declining up until December. Chao says they are starting to notice “outbreaks” or incidents of COVID-19 more frequently in the data. However, he says it is not at a “sustained increased.”

Chao says the situation they are seeing in the wastewater data is “not super stable” and his team needs at lease another week of data to better understand where the trajectory could go.

“Once we’ve got the first Omicron-related outbreak here, it’s probably not going to stop,” Chao said, adding it will only be a matter of time before Omicron takes over Delta as the dominant strain.

“My guess is once we’ve got a significant large outbreak … there is a good chance that we see a faster and steeper increase.”