Saskatchewan’s public health measures extended until April 26

Saskatchewan’s current COVID-19 public health measures will be in place for two additional weeks.

The provincial government announced Wednesday that chief medical health officer Dr. Saqib Shahab had opted to extend the public health orders to April 26. They were to expire next Monday.

“The current restrictions throughout Saskatchewan brought the curve down in December and the only thing that has changed (outside of the Regina zone) is that you can, with precautions, make household bubbles of up to three households and worship sizes have gone up,” Shahab said during a media conference Wednesday.

“Everything is the same otherwise that helped us control the surge in December and January.”

The current health orders include the stricter measures put in place for the Regina region March 23, when private indoor gatherings were limited to household members only, restaurants and licensed establishments had to close for in-person dining, in-person worship services were capped at 30 people, and event venues had to close.

Unnecessary travel into and out of the Regina area also was discouraged.

In other regions, the current health measures say individual households can have up to 10 people in a home at any one time from two to three households. The limit on outdoor gatherings remains at 10.

Outside of the Regina area, worship services can have up to 30 per cent of a building’s seating capacity or 150 attendees, whichever is less.

The Regina region has been the province’s COVID hotspot in recent weeks and it now has recorded 8,532 cases since the start of the pandemic, the highest-such number in Saskatchewan.

While other jurisdictions like Ontario and Alberta are introducing tighter restrictions to contain the spread of the virus and variants of concern, Saskatchewan will keep its current measures in place.

“Outside of Regina, they’re certainly working,” Health Minister Paul Merriman said. “We have a very low rate outside of Regina. (In) Regina, there are variants of concern that are here and they are moving across the province, but that’s why we’re rolling out our vaccines …

“We’re not looking at any current increase in public health measures right now, but I can tell you, on a daily basis, Dr. Shahab is in contact with his medical health officers to be able to find out if we need to move on anything and when we need to move on it.”

Merriman and Shahab once again said people should follow the public health orders until they’re vaccinated. As Shahab put it Wednesday: “It is critical we don’t give up on the public health orders.”

But some are suggesting that, with the number of variant cases increasing in other areas, the province should pre-emptively add stricter measures now instead of waiting.

Merriman said the government wanted first to see what impact vaccinations had on numbers before tightening the belt.

“If it’s something that we need to be able to do, we’re always prepared to do that,” he said. “But we want to make sure that the restrictions are complemented with compliance of the restrictions that we have seen but also making sure that those restrictions are functional …

“I don’t think more restrictions are the answer. I think adhering to the existing restrictions, complemented with our vaccine program, is our best path on this.”

Shahab concurred and once again called on the province’s residents to help curb the spread of the virus.

“We have to do whatever we can individually to minimize transmission rising in other parts of Saskatchewan,” he said. “That is going to be critical over the next four to six weeks while our vaccination rates pick up — and the way to do this is obviously being very diligent wherever we are with the public health guidelines and orders.

“We need to hold the line over the next eight to 12 weeks until we are better protected through vaccination.”