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Premier Scott Moe is ready to bar the doors of establishments that are ignoring public health orders aimed at limiting the spread of COVID-19.
During a conference call Tuesday, Moe was asked if Saskatchewan should shut down some activities and add more orders that would lower the province’s case numbers.
“I don’t believe we need new measures put in place to bend the COVID curve here in Saskatchewan,” Moe replied. “What we need is everyone to follow the measures that are in place — and enough is enough. It’s time for us to start enforcing (penalties against) those that are not following those measures.”
Moe pointed specifically at a recent incident at The Tap Brewhouse in Regina, where a video showed patrons dancing in close proximity and not wearing masks.
He held up that incident against a petition he has on his desk bearing the signatures of more than 10,000 people who want minor hockey teams to get back to playing games — something that isn’t allowed under the current public health orders.
“At the same time we have these adults asking for their children to participate in a sport like hockey, we see a video of a number of adults that are selfishly and drunkenly dancing around a restaurant or a bar right here in Regina,” Moe said.
“The question I ask myself is, ‘Do we need to punish all of the restaurants, many that are adhering to the public health orders that are in place, because there are these few that are not?’ I would say no, we don’t. We don’t need to punish all of those that are following the public health orders.
“But to those establishments and even those individuals that are flagrantly operating outside of what the public health orders are, they do need to be punished and I’ve asked Public Health to look at (if) there are other opportunities in addition to fines — including closing these bad actors indefinitely — to ensure that we are having compliance in our communities.”
Moe went so far as to encourage police to “escalate the enforcement” of the public health orders. Fines have been levied against some establishments at which COVID rules have been defied, but Moe believes more can be done.
Recent incidents like those at The Tap and Crackers in Saskatoon — to which the Saskatchewan Health Authority now has linked 75 COVID cases — have kept case numbers up in the province.
There were 309 new cases reported Tuesday and Saskatchewan’s seven-day average of new cases is at 300. The province continues to have the highest active case rate per 100,000 population in the country.
“We have kids in community after community across this province that are making the sacrifice,” Moe said, referring to youth sports being cancelled. “It’s time for all of us as adults to make the same sacrifice.”
Dr. Saqib Shahab, the province’s chief medical health officer, has seen some positives in the numbers of late.
The test positivity rate in Saskatchewan has dropped by two full percentage points to 10.3 per cent and daily testing rates have increased. However, he also has seen hospitalizations increasing and cases being generated from funerals, wakes and parties.
“These measures, we need to stay the course over the winter (and) over the spring until we get into the summer,” Shahab said, “because by then, vaccinations will have been available to the vast majority of the population.”
Vaccination update
Moe said the province’s rollout of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines had shown dramatic improvement over the past week.
As of Tuesday, more than 24,000 shots had been administered, an increase of around 15,000 over the past seven days.
“On a per-capita basis, Saskatchewan has now delivered the second-highest number of shots of any province,” Moe said. “We’re behind only Prince Edward Island, which has obviously a very small population.
“In fact, if Saskatchewan was a country, our pace of vaccines delivered would now be in the top 10 among all countries worldwide.”
But that pace is about to slow down.
The province is to receive only 2,925 doses of the Pfizer vaccine this week and none next week due to a slowdown of production. As a result, Saskatchewan will run out of vaccine in the coming days.
“We will need to revise our vaccine rollout plan in the coming weeks because of this latest delay,” Moe said, “and we need the federal government to pick up the pace of vaccine deliveries in the weeks ahead and pick up the pace of their negotiations and discussions with Pfizer in particular.”