Saskatoon

Health experts say it's up to Sask. residents to curb a second wave of COVID-19

With COVID-19 cases on the rise in the province, health experts say Saskatchewan residents need to revive their efforts to curb the virus.

‘Each and every one of us in this province has a responsibility,’ says Dr. Joseph Blondeau

The government of Saskatchewan says new cases of COVID-19 in Saskatoon have been tied to bars and nightclubs, but one health expert says we shouldn't be quick to judge a certain age group based on that information. (Maggie MacPherson/CBC)

With COVID-19 cases on the rise in the province, health experts say Saskatchewan residents need to revive their efforts to curb the virus.

The province saw a record daily increase in the number of cases on Monday. At least 86 cases are now tied to the Prince Albert gospel centre superspreader.

Dr. Joseph Blondeau, head of the clinical microbiology department at the University of Saskatchewan, said that because the virus is spread by close contact through droplets, larger gatherings are an "ideal situation" for it to proliferate.

"If you're in an environment where you're actually doing something — it could be a gym, it could be singing, it could be dancing — where you're actually increasing your respiration, then I think there's an argument to be made that that may actually accelerate the rate at which you're expelling virus to people who are close around you."

The Saskatoon zone had 25 new cases reported Monday. The province said most of those were tied to bars and nightclubs. 

As the number of cases go up, a percentage of them will require elevated levels of care, Blondeau said, including some people who will require admission to the intensive care unit.

He said if cases continue to rise, the government may need to look at reinforcing the messaging that was done earlier in the pandemic.

"If we go back to when the pandemic was originally announced and then look at all the measures that were put in place immediately thereafter, we had enormous success in containing the spread of the virus," he said. 

"But over the summer, I think we sort of saw maybe people relaxing some of those restrictions or some of those guidelines and as a consequence, we're starting to see a resurgence in cases."

Blondeau said those early measures were designed to manage the rate at which there would be a demand on health care systems, and that hasn't changed.

"Each and every one of us in this province has a responsibility to do our part in order to minimize the likelihood that we spread this virus," he said.

On the edge of a second wave

Dr. Anne Huang, a public health physician and former deputy medical health officer for Saskatchewan, said the province is on the edge of a second wave of COVID-19.

She said the 66 cases reported Monday are concerning because that is almost twice the daily new case average for the past two weeks.

Even if people "drastically" reduce their contacts right now, Huang said we won't see a decrease in cases right away, though we might level-off.

"When we're looking at these newly reported cases online, we're actually staring at transmission events that happened in the past, maybe a week before, maybe two weeks ago."

Front line positions staffed by younger people

Huang said that at the start of the pandemic, the most vulnerable people got sick first, but precautions are now in place to protect those populations.

Now the virus has shifted to a younger generation of people, specifically the 20-to-39 age group, which has seen the majority of cases in the province with about 34 per cent of all diagnoses.

While bars and nightclubs have been in the news lately as transmission touchpoints, Huang said it's not fair to say the transmissions in this age group are due solely to partying.

"Most of the service front-line positions are often staffed by younger people. So when we think about the age group of 20 to 39, these are more likely the people who would be taking part-time jobs or even full-time jobs working in restaurants or bars or working part-time shifts in service, customer-facing jobs."

Many people working these positions don't have extended health insurance or sick leave that would allow them to take time off if they have mild symptoms, Huang said.

"Where I hope to see our government and health officials step up is ... that when public health ask people to isolate or quarantine, that they take the extra step and find out if they can afford to do so, because not everyone can just stop working for two weeks."

She also encourages people to wear a mask to protect people working in those positions.

"It's respectful and caring for all the customers going into a business to wear a mask. It's not just about you, it's about protecting the people that are providing an essential service to you."

'Anti-masking messages need to be countered'

Huang said education is "crucial" right now and that social media advertisements about limiting your extended household to 15 people are not enough.

"We need more education than that," she said. "The anti-masking messages need to be countered very clearly and strongly from trusted health officials."

Huang said there's newer research that suggests the virus can be transmitted even if people are two metres apart, especially in indoor settings.

"So it's really important now as we spend more time indoors that people really be mindful of wearing a mask while in any indoor public spaces. That will really help keep our infection rate down in Saskatchewan."


CBC Saskatchewan wants to tell more stories about how the pandemic is touching the province's most vulnerable and marginalized populations. How has COVID-19 affected you? Share your story using our online questionnaire.

With files from Jean-Baptiste Demouy and The Morning Edition