By Thomas Piller Global News
Posted October 5, 2021
A Leger survey suggests Saskatchewan residents are split over the province’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Forty-two per cent of Manitoba and Saskatchewan people surveyed expressed total satisfaction with the measures put in place by their provincial government to fight the virus, while 56 per cent were dissatisfied.
By contrast, 56 per cent of respondents indicated they were satisfied with the federal government, and municipal governments in the two provinces received 65 per cent. Across Canada, 55 per cent were satisfied and 40 per cent were not.
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Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe was polling at 74 per cent dissatisfaction and 24 per cent satisfaction when it comes to public health measures put in place. Among premiers, Alberta’s Jason Kenney had the highest dissatisfaction at 80 per cent, with 17 per cent satisfied.
The Atlantic and Quebec premiers saw the highest percentages for satisfaction, with 75 and 74 per cent, respectively.
Seventy-one per cent of respondents from Saskatchewan and Manitoba indicated governments should not lift all restrictions related to COVID-19 at the time. This was the second-lowest percentage behind Quebec at 69 per cent and 74 per cent of Canadian respondents agreeing.
The Canadian-owned polling firm released its survey on Oct 2. The online poll was conducted from Sept. 24 to Sept. 26 with 1,537 Canadians 18 years of age or older. Leger said a margin of error cannot be associated with a non-probability sample in a panel survey.
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On Tuesday, Saskatchewan’s dashboard showed 340 COVID-19 patients in hospital, 4,385 active cases and the overall death toll rose by 10 to 726. The province’s seven-day average of new daily infections is 427.
A total of 1,576,702 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in Saskatchewan, the dashboard showed. Of Tuesday’s 242 new cases, the provincial government said 194 were unvaccinated, which included 40 children under the age of 12.
Josh Lynn
Tuesday, October 5, 2021
SASKATOON -- The Saskatchewan government says it will not introduce limits on gathering sizes in the province's COVID-19 hotspot as requested by Saskatoon's mayor and city council.
Following a unanimous vote during a special meeting of city council last week, Mayor Charlie Clark sent a letter to Premier Scott Moe on Friday requesting additional public health measures, mainly limits on gathering sizes.
As of Tuesday, Saskatoon had 1,063 reported active cases, marking 20 consecutive days the city has had more than 1,000 active cases.
The meeting was called after city administration asked Clark to write a letter on behalf of council to ask for a limit of 15 people at private gatherings in Saskatoon, including household gatherings.
Administration also recommended a limit of 150 people at locations such as bingo halls, event centres, theatres and casinos or one-third of current capacity, whichever is less.
In an emailed statement sent to CTV News on Tuesday, the Saskatchewan government said it "will not be making an order to limit gathering sizes."
"The vast majority of new cases and hospitalizations are unvaccinated residents and those who are not vaccinated should get vaccinated," the statement said.
While answering councillor's questions during last week's meeting, Saskatchewan Health Authority medical health officer Dr. Jasmine Hasselback said households in particular are a "huge transmission location" and that similar measures helped slow the growth in news cases earlier in the pandemic.
The statement also pointed to "recommendations" for the upcoming Thanksgiving long weekend issued by the province on Tuesday.
The suggestions include visiting outdoors as much as possible, being aware of the vaccination status of guests and a recommendation that unvaccinated people should not gather with family and friends.
SHA respirologist and pandemic chief of staff Dr. Mark Fenton also spoke during the virtual council meeting.
He said a clear framework is needed to control the spread of COVID-19.
"Our population has proven we need rules and not encouragements to control the spread of COVID-19," Fenton said.
A localized approach to public health measures is not without precedent in Saskatchewan, with the province moving to ban private gatherings in Regina earlier this year as the city battled its variant-fuelled COVID-19 surge.
“The City’s request to limit gathering sizes was informed by the advice of our EMO, MHO, and that we were at level orange in our municipal COVID framework. We remain very concerned about the dire situation of our health system and know that many residents are increasingly worried about hospital services available due to the large numbers of Covid patients,” Clark said in a statement to CTV News.
“This concern continues as we go into Thanksgiving weekend and we strongly ask that people take extra care and do what they can to be safe. This means asking for the vaccination status of your guests, keeping your gatherings small and taking the visiting outside.”
Sask.'s political leaders are responsible for unnecessary suffering and death
We are experiencing the tragic consequences of our
leaders’ inaction
This Opinion piece was written by Nazeem Muhajarine, a professor of community health and epidemiology at the University of Saskatchewan's college of medicine, and Kathryn Green, a former associate professor of community health and epidemiology at the University of Saskatchewan.
After 19 months of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have learned much about how to control the spread of the virus to minimize suffering and death. Sadly for the people of Saskatchewan, our government is ignoring these important lessons and we are experiencing the tragic consequences of our leaders' inaction.
September was a record-setting month for Saskatchewan. These aren't the kinds of records you want to break.
The number of active COVID cases, new daily cases, COVID patients in hospital and ICU patients all reached new highs. Almost one-fifth of all the cases recorded since the pandemic began came in the past month. Low testing rates mean this is surely an underestimate.
While vaccinations have kept the death rate lower than last winter, Saskatchewan lost 88 of its residents to COVID in September. The health-care system is strained to the point where surgeries for anything not immediately life-threatening have been cancelled, organ transplants are on hold and adults are being treated in the province's only pediatric ICU.
We need to be clear that this suffering, loss of life, stress on health-care workers and disruption of health services could have been prevented.
Other leaders in Canada and elsewhere have learned that the key to controlling the pandemic is to "go early, go hard." Our government must understand that a combination of strategies is required, rather than relying on vaccination alone.
Manitoba much more vigilant
We have only to look to Manitoba, a neighbouring Prairie province also governed by a conservative party, to see how much better off we could have been and to point the way forward.
Manitoba has a slightly larger population than Saskatchewan (1.37 million versus 1.17 million) but in the second half of September, our province recorded 5.4 times as many COVID cases and nine times as many deaths. What accounts for this huge difference?
First, more Manitobans have been vaccinated. While some regions have low vaccination rates, overall about 83 per cent of eligible Manitobans are fully vaccinated, compared to just 71 per cent in Saskatchewan.
Unlike Saskatchewan's government, Manitoba did not simply rely on asking its residents to do the right thing. Early in June, Manitoba launched a vaccine lottery. In late August, it announced that government workers — including health-care workers, teachers, and prison guards — must be fully vaccinated by the end of October or undergo regular testing. It implemented a vaccine mandate on Sept. 3, a month ahead of Saskatchewan.
The higher vaccination rate is not the only difference. While Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe rushed to lift all public health restrictions early in the summer, Manitoba was more cautious.
Manitoba's indoor masking requirement was not lifted until Aug. 7 and was reinstated just two weeks later, as the delta-driven fourth wave started to appear in other provinces. Manitoba also continued to restrict the size of public gatherings throughout the summer, while Saskatchewan to this day has no restrictions at all.
Manitoba continues to be forward thinking. In response to increasing case numbers and ICU admissions, the government announced new restrictions effective Oct. 5. Gatherings that include unvaccinated people will be limited in size, as will retail capacity in regions with lower vaccination rates.
Manitoba's public health officials explicitly stated that having learned from the second and third waves of the pandemic, they are not waiting for the situation to worsen before acting. This proactive approach stands in sharp contrast to Saskatchewan's.
On Sept. 29, at his first news conference in more than a month, Health Minister Paul Merriman did not apologize for delaying the implementation of measures to increase vaccination rates.
"There's no looking forward into the future with a crystal ball," he said.
Minister Merriman, like Premier Moe, seems incapable of either hindsight or foresight. Our leaders have the same information and expertise available as provinces like Manitoba. Unfortunately, our leaders appear to believe they are better equipped to make life-and-death decisions than public health and medical professionals.
Reducing further calamity
As winter approaches, no crystal ball is needed to predict what lies ahead if Premier Moe fails to strengthen our province's defences against COVID. To reduce further calamity, we need our government to take leadership and extend the proof-of-vaccination policy to all work settings, especially schools.
Effective strategies such as restricting the size of gatherings, comprehensive contact tracing, and clear expectations around isolation must be brought back, while rapid testing must be scaled up. Transparency and better communication are essential to keep everyone informed and rebuild trust.
Premier Moe has missed the chance to go early, but he can still go hard. By doing so, he could prevent further suffering and unnecessary loss of life in Saskatchewan.
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