`Enough is enough,' premier says

Moe says businesses breaking COVID rules could face closure

Premier Scott Moe is playing down any notion of toughening Saskatchewan's public health measures to fight the nation's highest COVID -19 rates, but he warns that harsher “punishments” could follow for businesses that flout the rules.

“I don't believe that we need new measures put in place to bend the COVID curve here in Saskatchewan. What we need is everyone to follow the measures that are in place,” he said, addressing a news conference Tuesday.

“Enough is enough. It's time for us to start enforcing.”

He said that could include closing “bad actors” among bars and restaurants that don't keep patrons in line.

Moe directly addressed a video shot Friday at the Tap Brewhouse & Liquor Store restaurant in Regina, saying he saw patrons “selfishly and drunkenly dancing.” But he said most businesses are operating safely, and argued it would be unfair to punish everyone with shutdowns for the actions of a few.

“To those establishments and even those individuals that are flagrantly operating outside of what the public health orders are, they do need to be punished,” Moe said. “I've asked public health to look at, is there other opportunities in addition to fines, including closing these bad actors indefinitely.”

The Tap has said in a statement that it attempted to enforce rules and asked the dancing patrons to leave. Moe noted that an investigation is ongoing, as it is for other establishments.

He said those that aren't enforcing rules in their premises “are going to realize what the full consequences of punishments are.”

The current suite of public health measures lasts until Jan. 29. But Moe said Saskatchewan already has the right measures in place, signalling they're unlikely to change when they come up for review.

Saskatchewan has had the highest per capita rate of active COVID-19 cases in the country for a week straight. Provinces with stricter restrictions, including lockdowns and curfews, have seen their seven-day averages drop more quickly than in Saskatchewan. But chief medical health officer Dr. Saqib Shahab said he's seeing signs that trends are heading in the right direction, though at a painfully slow pace. He agreed that current measures would be enough to bring cases down — if people comply.

“We need to stay the course over the winter, over the spring, until we get into the summer, because by then vaccines will be available to the vast majority of the population,” Shahab said.

He said the “hammer” of harsher restrictions would have to come down if the health system were in danger. On Tuesday, there were 207 people who had tested positive for COVID-19 in Saskatchewan hospitals. Last week, intensive care was at 95 per cent capacity.

“We may not be there yet,” Shahab said.

“The hammer is a very blunt instrument. It causes many unintended consequences. It's not the preferred instrument, but when the health system is on the brink of collapse, then unfortunately those desperate measures have to be taken.”

Moe agreed that hospitalization numbers will be a key metric for deciding if measures need to change.

“That is the number that everybody is watching,” he said.

He celebrated the “dramatic improvement” Saskatchewan has made in the pace of vaccination, with 15,000 injections in just a week. That's the second most of any province on a per-capita basis, he noted.

Yet Moe expressed concern that Canada is now expecting zero deliveries of the Pfizer vaccine over the week of Jan. 25. He said there are only 2,925 Pfizer doses expected this week.

Over four weeks, Saskatchewan will get about 17,500 Pfizer doses instead of 37,000.

“At the pace we are going, and with the slowdown in deliveries from Pfizer, we expect that Saskatchewan will run out of vaccines over the course of the next few days,” Moe said.

“We will need to revise our vaccine rollout plan in the coming weeks because of this latest delay,” he added, “and we need the federal government to pick up the pace of vaccine deliveries.”

Saskatchewan Health Authority CEO Scott Livingstone said the shipments that eventually do arrive will be split between first and second doses to keep up, while moving to a 42-day gap between doses could “mitigate” the impact.