Data problem responsible for 2 weeks without COVID deaths

With an update to the COVID-19 dashboard on Friday, the province revealed a data problem has kept multiple deaths, dozens of hospital cases, and thousands of resolved cases and negative PCR tests off the public totals.

Dr. Saqib Shahab explained that missing data were discovered.”

“There was a flag that was brought up, that because there were no deaths that were being reported, is there some issue with the data filters. And that’s exactly what was found,” said Shahab.

The Chief Medical Health Officer said there was a filter in the panorama system used to compile the totals that wasn’t refreshed for the new year, so data had been missed since Jan. 1.

The data was added to the dashboard on Friday: nine deaths, 11 ICU admissions and 86 inpatient hospitalizations that are not currently still in hospital, 2,233 resolved cases, and 3,700 negative PCR tests.

Shahab said this didn’t impact some other things on the dashboard, like new cases, because those numbers go through the lab and hospital systems, not panorama.

Of the nine deaths, five were 80 years of age and older, two were in their 70s, and two were in their 60s.

“While it’s unfortunate and, obviously, the ministry takes full responsibility for that it was an issue with the database that’s run through the population health branch, which is one database that reports through panorama,” said Shahab.

On Wednesday, Premier Scott Moe tweeted, doubling down on his decision to not implement any new health measures and pointing to no reported COVID-related deaths in the province for nearly two weeks as an indicator of how well the province is doing with Omicron.

Shahab said the premier and executive council wouldn’t have known about the data issue at that time – explaining that Shahab himself had only been made aware of it Friday morning.

The Chief Medical Health Officer noted data reporting on COVID is getting more complex. For example, if someone has a heart attack and has COVID, they would most likely be an incidental case in hospital but COVID could start to complicate the clinical picture for that person’s recovery.

Where hospitalizations are going

Despite the premier’s refusal to implement any new health restrictions, Shahab took the opportunity with media on Friday to again advocate for each person to take actions to mitigate COVID – getting all of their vaccinations including booster, wearing their best mask when out of the house, and coming into contact with fewer people.

“We absolutely need to reduce non-essential contacts by as much as we can,” said Shahab.

Shahab said Saskatchewan is a few weeks behind other provinces which saw big peaks in cases and are still seeing record hospitalizations going up.

“I think the sheer numbers are such that other provinces have seen higher rates of hospitalization, lower impact on rates of ICU, but many provinces have seen hospitalizations during the Omicron wave that are much higher than what they saw in previous waves,” explained Shahab.

“At this point there is no reason why we will not see that either over the next two, three weeks.”

Shahab also addressed the modelling leaked from the SHA earlier in the week, saying that hospitalizations could reach as high as 500 patients at its peak.

The top doctor said the highest hospitalizations the province has had were around the 300 mark, but cases are much higher now than they have ever been.

“My own anticipation is that hospitalizations will exceed, at least in acute care, higher than what we’ve ever had – maybe somewhat lower in ICU,” said Shahab.

However, Shahab also compared modelling to weather reports, that we should prepare for the worst, but we aren’t locked into it. And he reiterated the importance of vaccines, masks and reducing contact with others, saying those things will be “critical.”

“In the past we have always changed our trajectory, we can and should still do that,” said Shahab.