Sask. NDP calls COVID isolation and reporting changes ‘a series of disappointments’

The Saskatchewan government is downplaying the seriousness of the latest COVID-19 Omicron wave while limiting public access to information, according to NDP Leader Ryan Meili.

On Thursday, Health Minister Paul Merriman and chief medical health officer Dr. Saqib Shahab announced anyone testing positive for COVID, whether vaccinated or unvaccinated, will now have to isolate for five days depending on symptoms.

Unvaccinated individuals previously had to isolate for 10 days.

Those who are close contacts of COVID cases won’t have to isolate anymore, and parents will no longer have to inform schools if their children test positive for the virus.

“It’s a series of disappointments from this government,” Meili said during a Zoom call with reporters. “We have a government that has only two kinds of actions during this Omicron wave, a wave that has seen us certainly with the highest case counts we’ve ever seen.”

Those actions, Meili said, include working to “actively spread” the virus by not bringing in additional public health measures instead of reducing them. The other, according to Meili, was to reduce the amount of information being shared with the public.

Seniors Critic Matt Love said he too was concerned, especially about what could happen in long-term care homes across the province if close contacts of positive cases no longer have to isolate.

“We have a growing list of outbreaks in this province,” he explained. “In the last two weeks, the number of facilities in an active outbreak has grown from 39 to 58. Also, the severity of those outbreaks continues to grow as the case numbers continue to climb.

“This opens the door for visitors who may still be spreading the virus to visit and enter those facilities and could potentially continue to drive up the number and the severity of the outbreaks,” he added.

Meili said while Premier Scott Moe may believe COVID-19 is more like the flu, that’s not always the case.

“The smartest people in the world have no idea what this virus might do. We need to be living to respond in the right way with plans that are responding to the reality, not just hoping … crossing our fingers and allowing things to run wild,” Meili said.

He said his plan would be to work with public health experts to preserve life and health-care capacity and to have a series of plans laid out weeks in advance.

“Scott Moe has us driving blind in a hurricane,” said Meili.