Opposition calls on Sask. to continue restrictions through January

A biomedical assistant professor is joining the official Opposition in calling on Saskatchewan to add further restrictions, as ICUs have almost reached capacity and a record number of COVID-19 patients are hospitalized.

Kyle Anderson, an assistant professor at the University of Saskatchewan, said an increase in cases was expected after the holidays due to low testing and people gathering, but that the numbers are now the highest they've been during the pandemic.

The province has a record seven-day average of daily new cases at 307. Before the holidays it was about 227. The province reported 412 new cases on Monday. 

"This is really what we feared, is that things would get away from us and accelerate and sort of really lose a lot of that progress that we made and sort of a couple of weeks leading up to Christmas," Anderson said. 

Premier Scott Moe and Saskatchewan's chief medical health officer Dr. Saqib Shahab are scheduled to provide an update on COVID-19 today at 3 p.m. CST.

Anderson said the increase in hospitalizations is also increasing the strain on the health-care system. Saskatchewan has a record 197 people in hospital, with 166 receiving inpatient care and 31 in ICUs. 

The province said that as of Friday, ICUs were at almost 95 per cent capacity, with about 34 per cent of the patients in for COVID-19. The province said there are typically around 75 ICU beds, but field hospitals would allow it to expand up to 328 ICU beds if needed. 

"We need all Saskatchewan residents to do their part to bend the trajectory we are on, and ensure that we are not in a situation where we have 400 patients a day in critical care," the Ministry of Health said in a statement. 

Anderson said other jurisdictions are having to make hard choices about care and have people being treated in hallways, but Saskatchewan isn't there yet.

He said there's a two or three week lag from when people are diagnosed to needing to be hospitalized. As a result, there could be 50 per cent more people in hospital by the end of the month, he said.

"None of this is something that we want and we really need to really just hit the brakes hard now because we can look to three weeks in the future and see that our numbers are going to spike in the hospitals."

NDP in favour of extending restrictions, wants vaccine rollout details

The provincial government's most recent public health orders are set to expire on Friday. A spokesperson for Premier Scott Moe said he would be available at the COVID-19 media briefing on Tuesday.

In previous instances, the government has announced new or modified existing COVID-19 measures before the previous ones expire. Opposition health critic Vicki Mowat said her party would be in favour of extending the current public health measures.

"We need to look at what is driving the pandemic, what is driving transmission right now, and whether other measures need to be put in place specific to those drivers."

Mowat said she and her party are hearing concerns about the vaccine rollout, in terms of both the pace at which vaccinations are happening and who is next in line.

"Saskatchewan has fallen behind on vaccination rates when you compare it to other provinces. [We're] equally concerned about the fact the health minister has been pointing fingers to the federal government instead of looking inward at what they can be doing to improve the process," Mowat said.

Mowat said the provincial government needs to manage the public's expectations and let them know the decision-making process of who will receive a vaccine and when.

"For example, if people are immunocompromised, they have no idea where they're going to fall on that list. They don't know whether they have to identify themselves to the government, whether their family doctor is going to be involved. There are so many questions at this point."

Restrictions could help against new variant: Anderson 

Anderson said no one likes lockdowns and they aren't an elegant solution, but could be an option for a couple of weeks to control things now before they get worse. 

"This isn't forever," he said. "We want to try and have a hard break, fix our numbers, and then we can relax as opposed to just dragging this out as long as possible and just suffering further damage." 

New COVID-19 variants from South Africa and the United Kingdom are also of concern, he said. Shutting down now would make sure the spread is contained before the new variant arrives in the province or is detected. 

"If we don't take it seriously, we could be really gambling with our lives and our health."

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