Restrictions likely in place until vaccines arrive in spring
Province needs to maintain guidelines until vaccinations roll out, says Shahab
Saskatchewan's general population can likely look forward to widespread vaccinations and a loosening of restrictions by April or May next year, according to the province's top doctor.
Speaking to reporters during a news conference on Wednesday, Dr. Saqib Shahab, the province's chief medical health officer, said vaccinations for the majority of the population “will hopefully start happening in April (or) May,” but urged people to diligently follow public health guidelines in the meantime.
“Overall, we really can't loosen anything up until at least April, May until the majority of the population has been vaccinated. Could we go back to where we were in October in terms of the restrictions in place there? ... We'll have to see how our case numbers progress,” Shahab said.
Paul Merriman, the province's minister of health, said a detailed plan on how the vaccine will be rolled out is expected next week. Saskatchewan is expected to receive a total of 180,000 doses through the federal government from Pfizer and Moderna in the first quarter of 2021. This is enough to vaccinate 90,000 people since each vaccination requires two shots.
This announcement came as the province reported two new deaths related to COVID-19 and 238 new cases on Wednesday.
One person who died was from the North zone and was in the 80plus age category.
The other was from the Regina zone and was in the 60 to 79 age category, according to a government news release.
Wednesday's reported fatalities bring Saskatchewan's total deaths to 53.
Saskatchewan's number of active cases also continues to rise and now sits at a record-high 3,970, even after 84 more recoveries were reported.
The seven-day average of daily new cases is 274, or 22.6 new cases per 100,000 population.
Saskatoon accounts for nearly half of the new cases with 109. Regina added 36. The rest of the new cases are in the Far North West (six), Far North Central (three), Far North East (16), North West (17), North Central (25), North East (three), South West (eight), South Central (one) and South East (three) zones.
Seven new cases have not yet been assigned residence information. Five previously reported cases have now been assigned to the Far North East (one), North Central (one), Regina (two) and South East (one) zones. One case previously assigned to the Saskatoon zone was removed from the counts.
Shahab said the average number of close contacts each positive case is reporting has dropped from 7.8 down to 6.6, which he finds encouraging, but he would like to see that number drop even further.
Because of rising cases in Regina, the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) announced on Wednesday it is limiting access to all of its acute care facilities to compassionate care reasons only. These restrictions will come into effect Thursday morning and will be reassessed after two weeks.
To increase testing capacity in the Prince Albert region, drive-thru testing is now being offered by the SHA in Prince Albert. The site will be open at The Cone Shop Car Wash seven days a week from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. This is in addition to the drive-thru testing sites already operating in Saskatoon, Regina and Yorkton.
A total of 2,473 COVID-19 tests were processed in Saskatchewan on Tuesday.