Excitement and wariness mark Saskatchewan's full reopening

People are excited but also admitting to trepidation as Saskatchewan becomes the second province to lift its remaining COVID-19 public health restrictions.

As of Sunday, masks and physical distancing are not required, and there are no longer capacity limits on gatherings.

On Canada Day, Alberta became the first province to fully reopen.

Safety is top of mind for Tracy Zambory, president of the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses. The pandemic continues to wear on nurses, she said.

“The members we've talked to, they're exhausted,” she said. “They're full of anxiety. And they're really worried about what the future is going to look like.”

Zambory said union members have mixed feelings about removing Saskatchewan's restrictions.

“We understand completely the need for people to get back to some sort of normalcy. It's been a long, long journey through COVID, but we know that we have to urge caution. We can't just base everything on a vaccination rollout.”

But at the final scheduled COVID-19 briefing on Thursday, Premier Scott Moe said the province is relying on vaccines as a first line of defence and noted Saskatchewan's falling case numbers.

Zambory is worried about the spread of variants and how the number of first doses of vaccines has plateaued. She hopes the province won't hesitate to bring back restrictions if they're needed.

“Registered nurses have the lived experience from the beginning of this pandemic,” she said. “We've been there every day since the inception. And we don't care to relive (the days) when the numbers were almost hitting 500 cases a day and we had to bypass intensive care units because they were so full.”