Saskatoon doctor cautiously optimistic about lifting restrictions

The Saskatchewan government’s plan to gradually ease pandemic restrictions is being met with cautious optimism by a Saskatoon family doctor — for the most part.

Dr. Carla Holinaty admitted on the Greg Morgan Morning Show on Monday that she has issues with the timing between the phases.

“I do have some concerns about the length of time between the first two phases, just with what we know about how long it can take between somebody becoming infected with COVID and showing signs of that infection,” Holinaty said.

“I’m a little bit concerned about the speed of the plan, but I think we have to remain hopeful.”

The government announced the Re-Open Saskatchewan plan on Thursday.

The first phase is to begin May 4, when some medical service providers will be allowed to resume business and low-risk outdoor recreational activities will be permitted.

The second phase is to start May 19, with retail businesses and some personal services getting the green light — provided there isn’t a spike of new cases after Phase 1.

Many residents were happy to hear the restrictions are to be lifted, but they may have taken matters into their own hands on the weekend.

Holinaty said she saw people congregating in groups larger than 10 — the current maximum number under the public health order — and failing to adhere to physical distancing requirements.

“It’s hard to blame people,” she said. “It has been a long and cold winter and Saskatchewan does what lots of cold places do in the springtime: Everybody comes out and it’s sort of like shaking off the dust from your hibernation. It’s just not something that’s safe right now.”

She noted all discussions about relaxing restrictions have called for keeping groups small.

“The allowances that have been made are to expand your group slightly, so maybe my family and my sister’s family of four could become a virtual household,” Holinaty said.

“But being safe in that relies on us having no contact with anybody outside of that very small group or else that’s where we see that exponential spread, that giant umbrella open up of cases.”

Holinaty also echoed concerns raised by CUPE Saskatchewan, which represents a number of health-care workers. She’s worried about keeping an adequate supply of personal protective equipment on hand when those goods are sought after by everybody everywhere.

“Now maybe instead of 10 medical organizations trying to get PPE, maybe we have 50 or 75 medical plus other organizations trying to compete for that same very limited worldwide supply of PPE,” she said.

With things like lakes and swimming pools set to open over the course of the plan, Holinaty suggested residents should maintain physical distancing so they avoid the risk of droplet spread from other swimmers.

She also recommended that people should leave their shoes outside to avoid potentially tracking the virus into their homes.

As well, she noted that parents should continue taking their kids to doctors’ offices to keep up with their vaccinations.

“The thing that would make a COVID pandemic worse is to have a massive outbreak of measles on top of it or a massive outbreak of whooping cough,” Holinaty said, “and actually overwhelm our capacity in our hospitals by kids who are sick with preventable infections and then not have the capacity to deal with COVID infections because of that.”