Province's decision not to enact new COVID-19 measures this week 'unconscionable': Sask. NDP

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe admitted Thursday that the holiday season in the province will likely look anything but normal this year.

Moe and his party have come under fire for not announcing new measures to prevent COVID-19 from spreading. For the past week, Moe and Chief Medical Health Officer Dr. Saqib Shahab insisted the COVID-19 measures put in place on Nov. 27 need time to be assessed — even though the province has been reported the second-highest per-capita rate of new COVID-19 cases.

During that same time Alberta introduced new restrictions and Manitoba extended its COVID-19 "circuit breaker" measures.

On Thursday, Moe reiterated that any new measures wouldn't be introduced until next week. He said the announcement would either introduce tougher measures, maintain the status quo, or even loosen some restrictions, depending on how the chief medical officer felt on the province's situation. 

Saskatchewan NDP Leader Ryan Meili said that this is not good enough.

"They should have acted a month ago when they knew what was going on," Meili said Thursday.  

"They've been completely irresponsible in not acting sooner and taking this more seriously… that they're still waiting until next week, is just unconscionable." 

Saskatchewan epidemiologist Nazeem Muhajarine said earlier this week that the time has already come to assess the current measures and that it may even be too late to put meaningful new measures into place. 

"If we were going to see any changes, we would have seen them by now," Muhajarine said Wednesday. 

"I think waiting seven to 10 days, even waiting 14 days, we should see some real changes and we really haven't seen that change we would like to see."

He said there doesn't seem to be any clear threshold, at least looking at the seven-day new cases average, as to when the provincial government is introducing new restrictions to reduce the virus's spread.

"It seems like our goalposts keep moving and our targets and our goalposts keep shifting," he said.

On holiday messaging

Moe had recently expressed optimism about the possibility of larger gatherings around the holidays.

But when asked Wednesday by Meili about introducing more restrictive measures during question period Wednesday, Moe said it looked "improbable" larger gatherings would be allowed this holiday season. 

On Thursday the Premier seemed to indicate gathering sizes would not be increased in time for the holidays.

"This will be a quiet time for us and I would encourage families to start planning for a quiet time, that is hopefully nearing the end of a very long battle… with this COVID-19 virus." Moe said. 

Measures tightening bit-by-bit

In the last two months the provincial government has introduced a variety of measures in attempts to limit the spread of COVID-19. 

Every health order signed by Shahab lists a date it is effective until, unless the chief medical health officer determines there is no longer a public threat.

Bars and nightclubs in Saskatoon were prohibited from selling alcohol between 10 p.m. and 9:30 a.m. CST, effective Oct. 30. 

On Nov. 4, the province made masks mandatory in Regina, Saskatoon and Prince Albert, and tightened restrictions on gathering sizes.

On Nov. 16, the mask mandate expanded to include any city of more than 5,000 people and "bedroom communities" surrounding those centres. The late-night alcohol sale prohibition implemented in Saskatoon at the end of October was expanded across the province.

On Nov. 19, the province's mask mandate was again widened to include all indoor public spaces. The same day — 15 days after it first announced a gathering size restriction — the provincial government reduced private gathering sizes again.

When the provincial government first announced the Nov. 19 measures, it said they would be reviewed on Dec. 17, the first time that date appears in public health orders.

Minister of Health Paul Merriman said at the time that the frequent changes to measures between late October and mid-November were sparked by increases in hospitalizations and cases.

"I can't tell you what's going to happen in the future, but I can tell you this if everyone adheres to guidelines that are set out we have got a better chance of maintaining what we have now or opening things back up versus going the other direction," Merriman said.

The current measures — the most restrictive since this spring's lockdown — were introduced on Nov. 27, eight days after the province's last update to its health orders. 

The province has not introduced any new province-wide measures since the current session of the legislature began on Nov. 30. 

When the current measures went into effect, the seven-day new case average sat at 268. 

As of Thursday, when the seven-day case average sat at 283, Moe said he felt the Nov. 27 measures had an impact on the COVID-19 numbers.

"Maybe they haven't totally eliminated the rate of increase but they most certainly have slowed the increase and when you compare where we are today to where the modelling had said we may be, we are in a much better situation," Moe said. 

Modelling presented mid-November  — when there had been 5,651 known COVID-19 cases in the province — indicated Saskatchewan's "best-case scenario" would be a doubling of cases over the next six months.

The "worst case scenario" the modelling forecasted was 469,000 cases over that same period.

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