COVID measures the most significant in Sask. history: Moe

COVID-19 case numbers continue to rise by hundreds each day and twice this week Saskatchewan’s hospital and ICU admissions with the virus have hit record highs.

Premier Scott Moe said that’s why the province announced new measures last week.

He pointed to the mask mandate put in place on Friday and the vaccine mandate set to come into effect in the coming weeks.

“I would say that these are quite likely some of the most significant measures that have been put in place by any government in the history of the province of Saskatchewan,” said Moe.

Moe said those measures, and those put in place earlier in the pandemic, are there to preserve the capacity in Saskatchewan’s health-care system.

There have been recent rumblings about the province’s health-care capacity being in danger, Moe said that’s why the health-care system has been slowing down, changing and rearranging some services to allow resources to be moved around.

“We made some decisions over the course of the last number of days that most certainly support those core services that we have in health care,” said Moe.

The premier said those changes were made to help people going into hospital with COVID, but also those who need to go into hospital with other problems like heart attacks.

Moe said the province has managed to increase ICU beds by 50 per cent.

He repeated, as he has many times in the past weeks, that the province is in this situation because of people who haven’t got vaccinated.

“The way for all of us in this province to support our frontline health-care services is if you are not yet vaccinated, if you’re part of that 30 per cent that ultimately could be part of the 80 per cent that’s in our hospitals and in our ICU beds, I would ask you again to revisit your decision,” said Moe.