(Submitted photo/Saskatchewan Health Authority)

By paNOW/CKOM

DOCTORS

‘The alternatives are much worse’: Sask. doctors plead for COVID measures in letter to government

Oct 26, 2021 | 11:25 AM

Over 20 doctors in Saskatchewan are once again pleading with the government to re-introduce restrictions to help curb cases of COVID-19.

“The Medical Health Officers of Saskatchewan (MHOs) would like to express our continued and growing concern about the current state of COVID-19 in our province and the lack of effectiveness of the current public health measures to bring about the rapid reduction in cases needed to take the unprecedented pressure off our health system,” stated a letter sent to Health Minister Paul Merriman late last week.

The letter was signed by 21 Medical Health Officers including Dr. Khami Chokani from Prince Albert, Dr. Mohammad Khan from Melfort, Dr. Nnamdi Ndubuka from NITHA and Dr. Isaac Sobel and Moliehi Khaketla from the Northern Population Health Unit in La Ronge.

The letter is a follow-up from a previous document the MHOs sent on Aug. 26, 2021. In that letter, the doctors said health measures were necessary to avoid a surge in COVID-19 cases. While some of the measures like vaccination requirements and mandatory masking were introduced, the delay in implementing them resulted in a much larger fourth wave.

“High test positivity and low testing rates point to sustained or growing COVID-19 transmission,” the letter states. “In our current context, reported positive cases do not tell the full story. Without further action, it is highly likely that we will face even higher rates of hospitalization in coming weeks and risk health system collapse, as well as many more preventable deaths.”

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The health minister and Premier Scott Moe have resisted calls for further measures, saying the proof of vaccination system and masking rules have led to a decrease in cases. During a State of the Province address on Monday, Moe said he did not want to implement sweeping measures and closures, as most Saskatchewan residents have been vaccinated.

“As long as our cases continue to drop and the measures that we have in place are seeming to be quite effective — which they are — I don’t think it’s the time to be looking at additional public health measures,” Moe said.

The letter did admit a large portion of the population is now fully immunized, and proof of vaccination requirements have started to improve case rates, but at the current speed of uptake, the province won’t reach the levels of immunity needed to stop the continued growth of the pandemic for several months yet. Therefore, temporary measures are urgently needed to break the chain of transmission, as “stopgap measures.”

The first recommendation from MHOs was focused on gathering restrictions.

“Move back to a similar stage as step one in the Saskatchewan re-open strategy for a 28-day period (with some modifications for the fully immunized population) as it has been shown to be effective in recent modelling,” the letter read.

It suggested reducing capacity by 25 per cent for weddings and places of worship while not putting forward any further measures for places like gyms, restaurants, or bars as they already require proof of vaccination.

The second recommendation expressed the desire for proof of vaccination to be required at more places, while no longer accepting negative tests as a substitute for not being vaccinated.

“In order to keep schools open, we need to make them safer. Proof of vaccination should be required for accessing in-person learning for children 12 years and older, and for households of those under 12 who cannot be immunized yet,” the letter read. “It should also be required for teachers and staff in all schools and daycare facilities.

“Facilities hosting youth sports/extracurricular activities for school-aged children should also require proof of vaccination for eligible participants, spectators, coaches, and volunteer staff.”

In the third recommendation, the letter touched on the government acknowledging the seriousness of the current state of the healthcare system.

“If most people reduced the number of contacts and trips they made by even 50 per cent in the next while, this would have a huge impact,” the letter claimed. “Limit or avoid travel outside your home community, reduce or cancel activities that require contact with others for the next month and organizers of events that result in large groups gathering should consider cancelling them this month (and) work from home if you have the option.

“Everything we can do to decrease the amount of interaction and mixing that we do will help interrupt the chain of transmission and speed up the process of health system recovery while we wait for increased immunization coverage to increase our population-level immunity.”

Lastly, the fourth and final recommendation asked for old measures that were presented by the MHOs — that were ignored — to be put in place.

“Capacity will need to be increased by expanding the number of contact tracers that take various roles in this important work,” the letter read. “Public reporting of COVID-19 information has been better with the discussion of modeling data; the Saskatchewan Health Authority and Ministry of Health need to agree on how to best report on this information.

“We understand that returning to these restrictions is not what our population wants, or what our leaders want to contemplate, but with the health system in crisis, the alternatives are much worse. Modeling throughout the spring, summer, and fall of 2021 was very accurate in predicting the state we would be in this fall if restrictions were lifted too soon.”

Earlier this month, the province released its latest modelling data with Dr. Saqib Shahab saying that unless some measures are put in place, cases could decline but the province won’t be back to “normal” until at least the beginning of 2022, resulting in thousands of further cancelled surgeries, and up to triple the amounts of patients in the ICU.

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panews@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @princealbertnow