Province tightens restrictions as COVID-19 battle becomes more dire

Saskatchewan has again rolled out a series of tougher guidelines in an attempt to slow the sudden sharp rise in COVID19 transmission across the province.

The sweeping guidelines announced on November 25 took effect this past Friday, with the enhanced measures impacting the following areas:

- All restaurants and licensed establishments (bars, taverns, nightclubs) are limited to seat four at a single table.

- If there are impermeable barriers between the tables, tables must be placed two metres apart. If there are no impermeable barriers between tables, there must be a three metre distance between all tables.

- Capacity will be restricted to 30 people at all casinos, bingo halls, arenas, live theatres, movie theatres, performing arts venues and any other facilities that are currently supporting a capacity of 150 people.

- Indoor public banquets, conferences, wedding and funeral receptions in public venues will be limited to 30 people. Food or beverages may not be present or served.

- The maximum allowable gathering size for private gatherings in the home setting remains at five.

- All team/group sports, activities, games, competitions, recitals, practices, etc. are suspended, including amateur and recreational leagues for all age groups.

- All places of worship must reduce capacity to 30 people, including wedding, funeral and baptismal services. No food or drink may be present or served.

- Mandatory, non-medical mask use will be required during all indoor fitness activities.

- All students, employees and visitors in all schools and day cares (except while consuming food or beverage or engaging in aquatic fitness activities). Children ages 0-2 years are exempt from wearing masks. Children ages 3-12 should wear a mask if they are able to.

- All employees and visitors must wear masks in all common areas in businesses and workplaces, even in those areas which the public does not have access.

- Retail businesses must enhance the expectation of mask use and mitigation measures (reduced traffic, directional flow signage, hand sanitizer, etc.) through signage and staff training.

- Large retail locations are required to limit customer access to 50 per cent capacity or four square metres of space per person, whichever is less.

In announcing the changes, Premier Scott Moe noted the province is not currently prepared to take further measures and a full shutdown of non-essential businesses like occurred back in the spring.

“We do understand this virus better than we did back in the spring. We do know more about how it is spread, and we know what we need to do to reduce the spread of this virus to keep ourselves and to keep others safe. Just slow down a little,” Moe said during the press conference last Wednesday.

“The overwhelming majority of Saskatchewan businesses and their employees in the province are operating safely day to day. So it would be terribly unfair, and it would have a huge negative impact to close down all of those businesses and put thousands of Saskatchewan people out of work.”

“We don’t believe the solution is another wide scale lockdown, putting thousands of Saskatchewan people out of work, devastating small businesses and families, ending their livelihoods in many cases. A much better approach for us is to find the right balance. To find ways for us to operate, and to do so even more safety than we have.”

He argued the best defence against COVID-19 is each of our individual actions in adhering to the public health recommendations which have worked so far during the pandemic.

“There is no silver bullet to controlling COVID19. There is no one place, there’s no one activity that is responsible for spreading this virus. And there’s no one practice, or one restriction, or one guideline that would prevent the spread of this virus. We have to do all of it. And we have to keep doing all of it, all the time, each and every day.”

Saskatchewan’s Chief Medical Health Officer, Dr. Saqib Shahab noted that Saskatchewan’s earlier instituted measures have had some impact, but not sufficient impact to bring case numbers down. At the time of the press conference Saskatchewan’s seven day average was 17.7 new cases per 100,000, and the province was experiencing a seven day average of 214 cases, with a test positivity rate of 6.6.

Dr. Shahab explained the latest adjustments to the Re-open Saskatchewan guidelines were developed through consultation with various sectors.

“This is really an opportunity for us all to participate in this and not to look at shortcuts or ways to circumvent this. I think most people will follow these guidelines, but it’s just really important for us to stay the course for the next three weeks and see our numbers start trending down by the middle of December so that we can look at further other options at that time in terms of continuing or even relaxing some of those regulations as appropriate.”

“Right now our numbers seem to be stabilizing, and we want them trending down. Unfortunately if we start trending up again despite all these measures, unfortunately then further measures would have to be considered, which are again very hard to propose and implement but are necessary to protect the healthcare system.”

Moe rejected the notion that these initiatives are half measures to control COVID-19.

“I believe that these measures that are put in place are substantial. They are by no means half measures. And it is my hope and I believe that they are going to have a substantial impact on our COVID numbers here in Saskatchewan. They are reasonably well targeted to the areas that we are seeing transmission. And they are quite well targeted with respect to restricting the numbers of people that come together.”

Premier Moe also noted that by moving the dial on COVID numbers now could have an impact when these restrictions are reviewed as they remain in effect until December 17. If there is an improvement there could be an easing of restrictions in advance of Christmas.

“I would hope that this is exactly what is on everyone’s mind in this province over the course of the next number of weeks, that you think about whether you are going to adhere to the public health orders that have been put in place. This is a hope that we can get to, by Christmastime, maybe we can have some allowable visits, yet with multiple levels of PPE, whatever that might be. But today we’re just not at that point in time. Today we are at a very different point in time, where our rate of community transmission is far too high and we need to lower that if we are to even have that conversation heading into the Christmas holiday season.”