Moe admits mask mandate could have come sooner, but no further restrictions announced

Premier Scott Moe spent much of his State of the Province address Monday on Saskatchewan’s flourishing economic prospects as the province emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic before facing questions from the media about how the government will support health-care workers to get there.

Moe’s tone was optimistic throughout his address but less so when speaking with media afterwards.

“With respect to the measures that we have in place, they are proving to be effective, and we should have moved sooner with those particular measures,” Moe said.

The premier told reporters that lower current numbers for daily cases and active cases in the province showed the effectiveness of current masking and proof of vaccination measures. He said further measures would not be warranted unless there was a change in the province’s “trajectory.”

“As long as our cases continue to drop and the measures that we have in place are seeming to be quite effective — which they are — I don’t think it’s the time to be looking at additional public health measures,” Moe said.

A 45 per cent reduction in the province’s daily case average since September when the current public health orders were put in place was also referenced by the premier as evidence that further restrictions are not needed.

“The measures in place are proving to be effective,” Moe said. “They’re dropping our caseloads here in the province and ultimately as that caseload drops, we should see our hospitalizations — which are already dropping as well — but ultimately our ICU cases dropping as well.”

Chief medical health officer Dr. Saqib Shahab has indicated a preference that gathering sizes be restricted in the province to help control COVID-19 cases.

In his speech and comments to the media, Moe indicated he did not wish to place further restrictions on the province that would limit people’s personal freedoms.

According to Moe, with high percentages of hospitalizations attributable to patients who have not been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, what is needed is an increase in vaccinations rather than further restrictions.

Saskatchewan NDP Leader Ryan Meili responded to Moe’s State of the Province address and said Moe “completely ignored the health crisis that his government created.”

Meili noted 123 Saskatchewan lives have been lost so far in the month of October. Moe confirmed nine patients from Saskatchewan had been transported to Ontario for medical care, with another nine slated for transport later this week.

“All of this is happening because Scott Moe is putting politics ahead of Saskatchewan people’s lives and all of this was ignored in Scott Moe’s address today,” Meili said.

Meili also called the speech “bizarre” and “a slap in the face to Dr. Shahab” as well as health-care workers, families who have lost loved ones to the pandemic and Saskatchewan patients who have seen reductions in therapies, treatments and surgeries.