Moe and Shahab up the province. (Facebook/Government of Saskatchewan)

By Alison Sandstrom

Variants of Concern

Vaccines accelerated but COVID-19 variants a concern

Mar 9, 2021 | 5:48 PM

Premier Scott Moe and Saskatchewan’s Chief Medical Health Officer, Dr. Saqib Shahab delivered good news about accelerated vaccine roll-out, at the same time urging caution over the emergence of new cases of COVID-19 variants of concern in the province.

Saskatchewan is set to receive 124,000 more vaccine doses by the end of March, Moe said at a Tuesday press conference.

“That’s more doses in the next three weeks than we have received in the first three months of our vaccinations,” he continued.

Based on current estimates, vaccinations of the general public under 70 (Phase 2) will begin in April.

• Moe said the province should be able to start vaccinating people in their 60s by April 5,
• people in their 50s by April 19,
• people in their 40s by May 10,
• people in their 30s by May 31,
• and all other adults by June 14

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Moe says the relaxation of additional restrictions, including for sports, will be under consideration in the coming weeks.

“We all want life to return to normal as quickly as possible but we still need to proceed with caution for a few more weeks until more of us have had a chance to get vaccinated,” he said.

He also urged people to get vaccinated when it is their turn.

“This is the most important thing that we can do to protect ourselves and protect those around us,” Moe said.

Increased cases of variants of concern

Also on Tuesday, the province announced 35 more cases of variants of concern had been detected among a sample of 190 people who tested positive for COVID-19 between Jan. 26 and Feb. 27. That brings the total number of variant of concerns cases detected to date in the province to 44. Five cases B1.351, the variant initially detected in South Africa have been confirmed in the North Central zone, that includes Prince Albert.

Moe defended the decision to loosen restrictions at the same time as the number of cases of variants of concern is increasing.

He pointed to the fact that overall COVID-19 case numbers are trending down.

“The way to approach the variants is exactly the same way to approach the COVID-19 virus, with proper health measure in place,” he said. “And although we are softening a couple of those health measures today with respect to worship services and household gatherings, there’s still a significant number of measures that are in place.”

Meanwhile, Dr. Saqib Shahab said just because residents can now increase their “bubble” size, doesn’t mean they should.

Larger bubbles will allow people to support individuals and family members who need it, Shahab said.

“But I think for most of us, we should not change anything and, if anything, we should pay more attention because of variants of concern,” he said.

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alison.sandstrom@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @alisandstrom