Moe ‘less positive’ about possibility of large gatherings at events

Scott Moe hasn’t ruled out a summer including CFL games at Mosaic Stadium, Country Thunder in Craven or Canada Day festivities around Saskatchewan.

But he hasn’t exactly told people to buy their tickets, either.

During a conference call Monday, Saskatchewan’s premier said restrictions that have been put in place to slow the spread of COVID-19 could spell the end for large-scale events.

“For the short term, those events just aren’t possible — short term being the next couple to few months,” Moe said. “After that, I’m actually becoming less positive that we’ll be able to gather in these many thousands of people in any event for the foreseeable future.

“We’re not sure in the months ahead, in the medium term, but we may have to have a discussion about that soon.”

Public health orders have limited the size of gatherings to a maximum of 10 people. The Re-Open Saskatchewan plan unveiled Thursday will permit bigger groups in its latter stages, but not to anything close to the numbers one would typically see at a Saskatchewan Roughriders game.

Physical distancing also is standard operating procedure these days — and, as Country Thunder spokesperson Gerry Krochak noted Wednesday, folks who attend that event “do the opposite of social distancing.”

Football games, softball tournaments, small-town agriculture fairs — everything is up in the air due to the virus.

“(A large gathering) is a high-risk area for the transmission of COVID-19, so we have not made decisions on large events out in the months ahead,” Moe said. “However, maybe it is worthy of a discussion — and we would reach out to a number of those event organizers.”

Moe specifically mentioned Country Thunder officials as well as the CFL, given that the Grey Cup is to be played in Regina in November.

For events like those to happen, Saskatchewan would have to keep its numbers of positive cases low. As of Monday, there had been 365 cases in the province to date, with 72 considered active.

The province’s relatively low case numbers prompted the move to restart the economy, with Phase 1 of the Re-Open Saskatchewan plan to start May 4 and Phase 2 to follow on May 19.

Those two will determine what the future holds for larger events.

“We have to make sure we succeed in our Phase 1 and Phase 2 before we start looking at future phases,” Dr. Saqib Shahab, the province’s chief medical health officer, said during Monday’s media conference.

“Having said that, there may be some really innovative solutions that event organizers can propose for consideration by local and provincial authorities that may minimize some of the risks but may let some events proceed in a way that at least lets people recognize that these are valuable cultural, economic and social events.”

Churches in the province already have staged virtual services, while others have held drive-in services. Businesses whose doors were closed have been relying on pickup, delivery or online sales until they get the green light to reopen.

Shahab said the province has to move cautiously in its reopening process, applying the lessons it has learned in the past and others it will learn over the next few weeks.

“When people gather around food, when there’s hugging, when there’s singing, shouting, crying tears of happiness or grief — (there are) those communal events that are natural to all of us as human beings in a society,” Shahab said. “But when they happen, transmission happens.

“We need to think very carefully, ‘How can we move forward as a society for the next several months in a way that we keep the curve flat until such time that there are therapeutics or a vaccine or other interventions that get us out of this?’ ”

In the meantime, the province will continue to rely on its key strategies — hand-washing, physical distancing, asking people to stay home or work from home and so on — to limit the spread before restrictions are lifted.

But some residents may have jumped the gun on the weekend. There were numerous accounts of people gathering in groups larger than 10 and ignoring the notion of social distancing.

Moe said he heard similar stories — and he wasn’t impressed.

“This success that we are currently enjoying is not guaranteed to continue,” Moe said, “and it’s certainly not guaranteed to continue if we don’t take our personal responsibility very seriously.”