(File photo/paNOW)

By Brent Bosker/CKOM News

COVID-19

Moe defends measures to combat the fourth wave of COVID-19

Sep 13, 2021 | 1:25 PM

Premier Scott Moe is defending his government’s response to COVID-19 as the fourth wave sweeps into the province.

The weekend saw 761 new cases across the province, along with the number of people in hospitals increasing from 190 on Friday to 198 on Sunday.

On Friday, the government announced it was making changes to help the healthcare system, to help people get more access to testing, and to get those who test positive to self-isolate.

The government’s steps didn’t include a public health order for mandatory masks indoors.

“We may need to look at things like masking in the days ahead if our hospitalizations don’t start to break at some point in the future and we would do that to manage the hospitalization levels that we’re seeing,” Moe told Gormley on Monday.

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“But we also need to understand as well that vaccinations are our path through this and there’s a certain segment of our population that likely is not going to get vaccinated. The other option to vaccination is unfortunately that you’re likely going to get COVID.

“All governments will use all of the tools that are available to them — including this government — but it should not be the government’s default to move too quickly into what are very, very serious decisions.”

The province recorded three more deaths and logged 420 new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, the large majority of which Moe noted are unvaccinated people.

Moe continued to beat the vaccination drum, saying vaccines are the most effective tool to fight the virus. However, he told Gormley he is not ruling out a vaccine passport system similar to what other provinces have introduced.

“That is another layer of protection that continues to be discussed at a number of levels of government,” Moe said.

“It is not this government’s default decision position to put in place a two-tier society where people can and can’t go various places, but if it starts to impact our ability to deliver urgent health care to the people of this province, all governments will use all tools that are available to them, including this government.”

On Sunday, Saskatchewan had just over 1,100 new first doses of COVID vaccine administered and just over 1,400 more people become fully vaccinated.

Moe maintains the province is doing well despite one of the lowest vaccination rates in the country.

“There is a certain percentage of people that just simply aren’t going to get vaccinated and there’s nothing that you’re going to be able to do to force those individuals to get vaccinated,” said Moe.

“This is about managing the capacity that we have to deliver health care, providing people with the choice to the greatest degree that we are able and ensuring when we do find our way through the pandemic, (that) Saskatchewan is poised for a strong recovery.”