New cases of COVID-19 in Saskatchewan were down week over week, as were hospitalizations, but there were 10 people in ICU compared to 6 the previous week, according to the provincial weekly Covid report.

Weekly test positivity is down to 4.6 per cent this week compared to 5.3 per cent last week. Test positivity was highest in the southeast, jumping up to 10 per cent from 3.6 per cent, the report stated.

Those rates should be interpreted with caution, the report notes, because that doesn’t include home rapid-antigen testing kits.

“The majority of laboratory-confirmed cases this week continue to be 50 years and older,” the report noted.

There were 10 deaths reported in this week’s report, with two people in their 60s dying with Covid and eight people who were 80 and above. Five of the 10 deaths were to people in the Regina area.

Eight new outbreaks were reported in long term care homes in the province, compared to three the previous week. The majority of the new outbreaks were in the north west region.

There have been 2.5 million vaccine doses administered in Saskatchewan, with 5,977 of them in the previous week.