With new cases of COVID-19 still high throughout the province, some new public health orders were announced by the province on Tuesday afternoon to try and curb the spread.
At their latest COVID-19 news conference, Premier Scott Moe and chief medical health officer Dr. Saqib Shahab announced that as of 12:01 a.m. Friday morning, the public health orders would be amended as follows:
The maximum allowable gathering size for private gatherings in the home setting will go down again, from 15 down to 10.
This includes those household members who ordinarily reside in the dwelling. Any event in a private dwelling and any outbuildings (garages, etc.) including weddings, religious gathering and funerals must abide by the gathering limit; it does not apply to households with more than 10 family members living in the residence. There will still be an ability to hold a gathering larger than 10 if it is held in a public venue such as a restaurant or banquet hall, and abides by the guidelines that apply to that location.
The second order calls for all residents are being mandated to wear non-medical masks when in indoor public spaces in Saskatoon, Regina and Prince Albert.
This public health order will be in place for 28 days, and the province will continue to review this afterwards.
In announcing the order Premier Moe noted that in the past few weeks they had seen their highest case numbers for COVID-19 to date.
He noted that Dr. Shahab had recommended taking new measures if the province saw case averages above 60 cases per day or as high as 120 per day for a sustained period of time. Over the past week Saskatchewan was averaging 76 cases a day.
Regarding where the mask order was being imposed, Premier Moe noted that Saskatoon, Regina and Prince Albert were the cities that had seen the highest case numbers in recent days.
“Using a mask is an important additional layer of protection and will help us control COVID-19 in our communities,” said Moe.
“However we should be under no illusions that a mandatory mask policy will solve everything. Much of the recent spread of the virus in Saskatchewan has occurred in private settings in homes where we are comfortable and maybe let our guard down, either between household members or others you may be visiting friends and family. We cannot let our guard down even when we are just with our family and our friends.
In fact that may be one of the places where we are most vulnerable, because we do tend to relax a little bit relax all of our good practises when you are around people that we know and are comfortable.”
Moe urged people do more than wear a mask, by encouraging physical distancing and continuing to wash hands and limit the circle of close contacts. He also stressed avoiding unnecessary travel, even within the province.
“We need to get these new case numbers back in a better place and that means being as careful as we were back in the spring,” said Moe. “Today, I am asking everyone in Saskatchewan to take that responsibility — to take your personal responsibility very seriously, and to do your part to protect yourself and to protect those around you from COVID-19.”
Dr. Shahab was more optimistic about the province’s ability to get the numbers back down. But It was noted that while there were 81 new COVID-19 cases as of Tuesday, there were also 97 recoveries.
“I think we need to remember that even though our cases have trended up a bit, we can get out of this,” said Dr. Shahab.
Case numbers were now trending at six cases per 100,000, a number that concerned Dr. Shahab. He also noted they were finding more cases where people could not identify sources of exposure.
“That’s why all the layers of protection are so important.”
Regarding why the mask order was imposed, Dr. Shahab noted they had been hearing back from some businesses that some required a mask and some didn’t.
“This really does level the playing field,” he said.
Also, while this order was mandatory to Saskatoon, Regina and Prince Albert, Dr. Shahab said his recommendation was for people to wear masks indoors everywhere in the province.
