Saskatoon medical health officer urges adherence to public health orders over the holidays

The COVID-19 upward curve in Saskatoon is starting to flatten, according to medical health officer Dr. Jasmine Hasselback.

Speaking to city councillors at the Governance and Priorities Committee meeting Monday, Hasselback said if it weren’t for the holidays right around the corner, she would be feeling better about the situation.

“I think if we were going into a more settled time, I’d be very happy to be in a wait-and-see state, but there certainly is going to need to be aggressive messaging around facilitating that we have had success and we certainly cannot lose it, and we certainly cannot introduce additional risk,” she said.

Hasselback says just last week, daily new infections in the city were averaging around 90 per day, but now Saskatoon has come down to around 70 per day. According to local wastewater data, cases may dip slightly in the days ahead.

“I don’t want to say that we’re there. I do say that we’re in a state where we’ve effectively flattened the curve, but we’ve definitely bent the rate of increase,” she explained. “Really, what we want to see is a coming down.”

Asked by Coun. Mairin Loewen where transmission is occurring, Hasselback said in about a third of cases, it’s not clear because contact tracing services are stressed. However, of the cases they can trace, workplaces, sporting activities, long-term care homes and clusters related to known contacts with COVID are the most common sources of transmission.

Over the holidays Hasselback stressed the need for residents to remain vigilant and to follow all public health orders.

“Any mixing of groups right now that haven’t been mixing in the last week or two, as a consequence of the new public health orders, will be absolutely detrimental,” she said.

The provincial government introduced new measures that will be in place over the holidays.

Thank you to staff and residents

At the meeting, Saskatoon’s director of emergency management, Pamela Goulden-McLeod, thanked city staff members and contractors, business organizations, partners, and critical infrastructure staff for their work over the last year.

“The number of changes that have happened within our organizations, how quickly those changes happened and how quickly staff members and employees adjusted to those changes was phenomenal,” she said.

She also praised Saskatoon interagency response to COVID, as well as that of faith-based organizations.

“There have been so many challenges this year. And there have been so many disruptions to our lives and yet we’ve all worked together in Saskatoon to move forward and support each other,” Goulden-McLeod said.

She said residents have also stepped up and responded well to all of the recommendations from the chief medical health officer.

No further COVID-19 updates from the Emergency Response Management department are expected until sometime in the new year.