Moe believes Mosaic Stadium could be full by August

Seeing 33,000 fans inside Mosaic Stadium might be in the near future.

Premier Scott Moe believes the Saskatchewan Roughriders could have 33,000 people in the stands when they kick off their 2021 CFL season Aug. 6 against the B.C. Lions.

Once 70 per cent of everyone 12 years old and up gets the first dose of their COVID-19 vaccine, all public health restrictions in the province will be lifted — including the one that limits gathering sizes.

“There may be people that are possibly hesitant to go into a stadium with 25(,000), 30,(000), 33,000 people in there,” Moe said during Tuesday’s health briefing. “Many people will be fully vaccinated by the first week in August when that occurs and we would encourage anyone who hasn’t started that process to get out and start it now.”

Moe also plans on attending the game himself, as long as his schedule allows it.

“Things will be somewhat different as well. It will be the same but somewhat different. I’m certain there will be some people that will be wearing masks although that won’t be required and that should be normalized by this period of time,” Moe said.

“I will have a mask with me and if there’s a point in time where I might just feel uncomfortable in a close crowd, you may see me put a mask on or you may not. I won’t speak about what that looks like almost two months out from today.”

Moe said we have to put faith into the vaccines and their efficiency.

“If we do believe that vaccines do work, then we do have to have faith in the fact that we are going to be able to move through and do some of the things we used to take for granted (such as) coming together in large groups,” Moe said.

Chief medical health officer Dr. Saqib Shahab said we need to start to learn how to live with COVID as we reach the end of the pandemic in Canada.

“COVID will be a pandemic in many parts of the world, unfortunately, for the next several months but thankfully we can look forward to a time in the near future where it will be an endemic illness, which means it will be around in low numbers in Saskatchewan and most parts of Canada,” Shahab said.

Shahab said most of the transmission health officials are seeing is between people who are unvaccinated.

He said there is always a risk of an outbreak occurring where there are pockets of people who haven’t got a shot.

“We have to start having gatherings in a way that for vaccinated people, it’s going to be extremely safe,” Shahab said. “For unvaccinated people, (they) should wear a mask if they choose to attend such an event but there will be no way to monitor that. It will be safer but not as safe as if you’re fully vaccinated and two weeks out from your second dose.”