Saskatchewan Health Authority has announced new measures including new screening and masking requirements to ensure safety in SHA facilities due to COVID-19.
According to their news release Tuesday, as of April 15 staff, physicians, learners, trainees, vendors and contractors will be screened daily when entering a SHA facility or program area to ensure they do not have an influenza-like illness. This is designed towards working towards the provincial standard of daily screenings and temperature checks for all health care workers throughout the province.
As added protection, staff and physicians who work in patient/client/resident care areas or need to travel to a critical care area will wear a procedure mask at all times. These measures are being taken so ensure no one is presenting with a flu-like illness and in an effort to decrease the spread of COVID-19.
The screening measures will be phased in throughout SHA facilities including long-term care facilities and programs, hospitals, primary care sites, as well as affiliates.
Saskatchewan Health Authority CEO Scott Livingstone said at a news teleconference Tuesday these measures were part of the “offensive strategy” that the health region was taking towards COVID-19. While they would continue to update modelling numbers in the upcoming weeks, they would continue their current path of “planning for the worst and aiming for the best.”
Their other measures included expanded testing outside of Saskatoon and Regina with faster turnaround times, with faster contact tracing to prevent further spread. Livingstone said Meadow Lake was one of the first communities to go live with this testing and in the coming days weeks it would be expanded in northern and rural communities.
At their news conference Tuesday, SHA officials were asked about a planned drive-in Easter church service in Nipawin that was cancelled on the urging of health officials. A Charter challenge has now been launched about the service's cancellation.
Livingstone said concerns were raised from the public, and health inspectors followed up with the organizers of the event, including the town of Nipawin.
“At the advice of our public health inspectors the organizers cancelled the event,” said Livingstone. “That’s what we know to date. We will be following up with Chief Medical Officer Dr. Shahab about how we deal with those sorts of things in the future.”
SHA officials were also asked about the consistency of the rules given that the Nipawin service was shut down, while a roadside tribute to Colby Cave went ahead. Cars were lined up along highway 16 near North Battleford to greet the family of Cave upon their return home.
Livingstone noted that was a "spontaneous event they were not aware of", and "quite different from an event that it was planned and advertised and which we received public concerns about", referring to the Nipawin event.
Dr. Shahab added that if it was just household family members in one vehicle, that was fine, but if it were several people from several different household gathering in one vehicle it would be the same as "mixing in a high risk environment, so that certainly would not be appropriate at this point."
He added that so far by staying the course, that is "why we are at where we are."
