Premier says getting 811 up to speed a top priority

Saskatchewan residents are still running into trouble dialing into the 811 Healthline.

Part of the Saskatchewan Health Authority’s pandemic plan announced over the weekend was increasing resources for the telehealth service due to concerns over COVID-19.

Premier Scott Moe told Gormley on Tuesday that the province has added capacity but people are still running into technical problems.

“Rest assured, SaskTel officials — as well as Ministry of Health (and) e-Health officials — this is their No. 1 priority, to ensure this line is up and able to take each and every call,” Moe said.

“We hope to be there. Hopefully maybe even later (Tuesday), all calls will be fielded in short order.”

The province also started offering an online self-assessment tool where people can check if they need to get tested for COVID-19. As of Monday at noon, Moe said more than 50,000 people had used the service.

“It is an e-Health resource that we are using to really narrow in who needs to go to one of our assessment centres and actually be tested,” he said.

Moe said the province has also started reaching out to business and industry associations to figure out what the economic impact of the pandemic will be and how to recover from it.

Moe noted that a spike in COVID-19 cases over the weekend in Alberta prompted the government’s decision to suspend classes at schools starting Friday.

The premier said discussions with the chief medical health officer were about the 17 new cases reported in Alberta on Sunday, many of them from community transmission.

“Alberta is very close to us and people are moving back and forth between here and Alberta all of the time. We ascertained that this is going to happen in Saskatchewan,” Moe said.

Moe said this week is about giving parents a “wind down,” a chance to make arrangements for child care, and to give students the chance to transition to distance learning.

Students will receive a final grade based on their current grade. Those eligible to graduate from high school will do so.

“We don’t know how long this is going to go on. It’s equally as possible that we will be in a much more challenged position as a society with COVID-19 in May, June, July than we even are today. In fact, it’s quite likely that we will have more cases by that point in time,” Moe said.

Royal Saskatchewan Museum closing

The province announced the Royal Saskatchewan Museum was closing Tuesday until further notice.

“We believe that closing the RSM is taking a proactive approach to promoting social distancing to stop the spread of this virus,” Parks, Culture and Sport Minister Gene Makowsky said in a media release. “We apologize for the inconvenience and look forward to reopening in the future.”

The museum is to reopen once public health authorities determine the threat of spreading the virus has passed.