Premier Scott Moe. (Lisa Schick/980 CJME file photo)

By Lisa Schick

Moe talks schools, jails and Christmas with COVID-19

Dec 1, 2020 | 12:09 PM

It has been only a few days since new health measures have come into effect in Saskatchewan, and Premier Scott Moe said it’ll take a little longer before any effects will be seen.

Moe is confident the measures will work to help bring COVID-19 numbers down, but he thinks we will have a few weeks of higher numbers as the new provisions take effect.

“For us to truly be effective in lowering the spread of COVID-19 we actually need to pay attention to what the health orders are and follow them in our daily routines each and every day,” said Moe.

Moe said last week there were large COVID numbers coming from a number of events that were outside the public health guidelines.

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More and more COVID cases are popping up in schools across the province, and more and more classrooms are being temporarily closed.

Moe said public health is working on figuring out where the cases have come from but he also said, with the amount of transmission in the community, it was likely that cases would come into schools.

“Our schools have proved to be very effective at not allowing that community transmission to happen to a large degree in our schools,” said Moe.

The premier praised school divisions, school employees, and teachers as well as students and parents for doing what they can to stop the spread.

Christmas

Many people are looking ahead and trying to prepare for their Christmas celebrations without knowing what they’ll be allowed to do.

On Monday, Moe didn’t rule out a relaxing of the rules for the holidays. He said the government will be listening to Dr. Saqib Shahab — the chief medical health officer — when the time comes.

The current public health orders expire on Dec. 17. At that time, Moe said, Shahab could recommend the restrictions be strengthened, kept the same, or relaxed.

“Potentially some (restrictions) — for example, around the numbers that we have for household gatherings are five right now — may be able to creep up just a little bit so that we could have a few people in our home for Christmas and for the holiday season for a couple of days,” said Moe.

Moe said he’s seeing rules being relaxed in other provinces.

When asked whether reducing the rules would really be a good idea, Moe reiterated that this is just a possibility, that it’s still too early to know yet what will actually happen.

COVID in the Saskatoon Correctional Centre

An outbreak has been declared and there are now up to 130 COVID-19 cases at the Saskatoon Correctional Centre.

Moe said that outbreak and the speed with which it has spread is a message for all of us.

“With the community transmission rates as high as they are now, this is the risk that we run, is COVID is going to get into the facilities where we do not want it,” said Moe.

He pointed to schools and especially long-term care homes as places were he doesn’t want COVID to show up.

Moe said the province needs to bend the COVID numbers down so those kinds of facilities can be protected because the outcomes are too severe.