Doctor has some concerns over Sask. re-opening plan

As Saskatchewan gets set to begin to re-open businesses amid the COVID-19 pandemic, one Saskatoon physician is cautiously optimistic about the plan.

On May 4, other medical businesses such as dentists will be allowed to open. Then on May 14 some personal care services and golf courses will get the green light.

Dr. Carla Holinaty told the 980 CJME Greg Morgan Morning Show says she does have some reservations about the first two 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.”

Another concern out there is that with more businesses opening up, personal protective equipment supplies could begin to dwindle.

“We know that in our health system right now we’ve got enough (personal protective equipment) to last us, at least for a while. But allowing these other businesses to open up really brings into the marketplace for PPE a whole bunch of other groups who need it to keep safe and keep other people safe,” the Saskatoon-based physician said. “Now maybe instead of 10 medical organizations trying to get PPE, maybe we have 50 or 75 medical (organizations) plus other organizations trying to compete for that same, very limited worldwide supply of PPE.”

As restrictions on businesses get loosened, Holinaty said it’s important people continue to practise social-distancing. She said it’s not an excuse to go out and meet with a bunch of people.

“That’s not, you interact with three families and each one of those interacts with three different families and each one of those interacts with three different families. The allowances that have been made is to expand your group slightly.”

As the weather gets warmer, more and more people are spending time outside.

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

She also took time to answer some questions listeners had during the Greg Morgan Morning Show.

While swimming may be a popular summer activity, Holinaty said the virus won’t be found in the pool water but there are still some worries.

“I think the bigger risk with things like swimming – especially when there’s kids involved – if you ever watched kids swim, they love to breath in water and cough all over the place basically the entire time they’re in the pool so that risk of droplet spread is significant when you’re in a thing like a swimming pool.”

She also said people’s clothing could be a place where droplets containing the virus can be.

“Shoes are definitely a place that do get a lot of contamination relative to a lot of things. It would not be unreasonable to consider if you’re working in a place where you come into contact with people to have a dedicated workplace pair of shoes.”

And while doctors’ offices may be a place many parents don’t want their kids to be during the pandemic, Holinaty said it’s important kids continue to get their vaccinations.

“Vaccines remain a critically important part of preventative healthcare for our kids. If you think about it, the thing that would make the COVID-19 pandemic worse would be an outbreak of measles or a massive outbreak of whooping cough and actually overwhelm our capacity in our hospitals with kids who are sick with preventable infections.”