New restrictions are coming in Saskatchewan as the province continues to see high numbers of new COVID-19 cases.
At the latest provincial news conference on Tuesday, Health minister Paul Merriman announced household bubbles are being limited to immediate households, effective immediately.
As well, the new Public Health Order reduces attendance at places of worship to no more than 30 people, effective 12:01 a.m. on Friday April 16.
“The level of transmission remains too high in some parts of our province,” said Merriman.
“We had hoped to avoid reinstating these restrictions but it’s something we need to do for a few more weeks until we get more people vaccinated.”
These measures are provincewide, and Merriman said that until more people are vaccinated there is still a chance of catching COVID-19.
“While we have been focusing on Regina and the south of the province, we must now take further action to prevent transmission throughout the province,” said chief medical health officer Dr. Saqib Shahab.
Dr. Shahab said now was the time to “do everything possible keep numbers low throughout the province”, to give vaccines a chance to make a dent.
There is also news of another reduction in the age for booking vaccination appointments online or by telephone. It is is being lowered from 55 to 52 effective at 8 a.m. Wednesday, and is also being lowered to 40 in the far North.
The Regina COVID-19 vaccine drive thru has lowered the age eligibility to include all residents aged 49-54 years only. It is open to first come first serve between 8:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily at Evraz Place.
As well, vaccinations have been expanded this week to include a number of priority groups including frontline workers. Merriman says this is being done without compromising the speed of their age-based vaccination program.
“Saskatchewan continues to stick it to COVID faster than any province in Canada,” Merriman said. “We have now delivered almost 300,000 vaccinations and over 70,000 shots were done over the last week.”
The province has now done vaccinations on half of those age 50 and over, and Merriman says their age based approach is working well, getting as many people vaccinated as quickly as possible.
They are also expanding the list of clinically extremely vulnerable individuals who can be vaccinated right away to include pregnant women, and 16 and 17 year olds who meet the criteria.
