Premier Scott Moe, Dr. Shahab to provide COVID-19 update after hinting at end to restrictions in Sask.
CBC
Saskatchewan is expected to lay out its path toward lifting or reducing COVID-19 restrictions at a provincial update on Tuesday.
Premier Scott Moe and Dr. Saqib Shahab will provide the update at 11 a.m. CST from the radio room of Saskatchewan's Legislative Building.
Moe hinted last week that the provincial vaccine requirement program is expected to be scrapped by the end of the month.
His statements came a little more than eight months after Moe and Shahab sealed the final regularly scheduled COVID-19 update with a handshake ahead of lifting all COVID-19 health restrictions on July 11.
Measures would be re-introduced months later as COVID-19-related hospitalizations and ICU admissions surged across the province.
Saskatchewan would eventually record 156 deaths in Oct., the deadliest month of the pandemic, as a result of the wave fuelled by the Delta variant.
Now, as the province deals with the highly transmissible Omicron variant, the premier will once again address the general public.
The premier has stated that "vaccination does not keep you from contracting COVID-19." Experts disagree with his assessment and says its based on misunderstanding the data being reported by Saskatchewan.
In recent interviews Moe has also pointed to hospitalizations dropping as a reason to lift restrictions.
Health officials have already reduced some restrictions, saying they want to begin treating COVID-19 like any other communicable disease.
As part of that policy shift, the province stopped providing daily COVID-19 updates as of Monday. The data does indicate hospitalizations dropped in the three days preceding the halt of daily updates.
Saskatchewan now requires all PCR tests for COVID-19 to be booked in advance via the 811 HealthLine and has reserved the tests for "priority populations at elevated risk to severe outcomes.
The head of the Saskatchewan Federation of Labour has already called for the province to continue with some public health measures.
At a news conference on Monday, Lori Johb called for the province to allow public access to PCR testing and for the proof of vaccination system to remain in place.
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