Flu season continues, and while southwest Saskatchewan hasn't seen outbreaks at long-term care facilities nearly as much as the rest of the province, cases of influenza-like illness throughout the province have been moderate in frequency recently.

The Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) hasn't announced any outbreaks at long-term care facilities in the southwest since Consulting Medical Health Officer Dr. David Torr said there'd only been a couple a week into February. The province as a whole has seen 65 as of them.

But in the SHA's influenza report for the week ending February 17, the entire province is listed as being 'level 2 - sporadic lab confirmations,' for influenza-like activity on a scale ranging from 'level 0 - none' to 'level 3 - localized outbreaks.'

The previous week, all of south and central Saskatchewan were listed as 'level 3,' while the north was at 'level 3.' The week ending February 3 saw southwest Saskatchewan as 'level 2,' while central Saskatchewan, from east to west, was 'level 3.' The rest of the province was level 2.

At this point in the flu season, where Type A influenza is replacing Type B, there have been 34 intensive-care unit admissions and 11 deaths in the province. The health authority does note that the numbers are underestimates, as not all cases are reported and people might die with influenza-like illness before being tested.

Last year at this time there were three deaths, 11 ICU admissions, and 50 outbreaks provincially.