Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe has rejected calls to re-impose gathering restrictions in the province.
Moe said he does not want to bring in the restrictions for the “vast” majority of the population who are vaccinated against COVID-19.
“We’re not going to be implementing broad-based restrictions on 80-some per cent of the population that has gone out and gotten their first shot,” he said during a briefing Thursday.
“The vast majority of Saskatchewan people have done the right thing, and we’re very resistant to the fact of imposing broad-based restrictions across society.”
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Saskatchewan NDP Leader Ryan Meili has called for limitations on gatherings until COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations stabilize.
“We are one of two provinces without gathering restrictions leading into this Thanksgiving long weekend,” Meili said in a statement after Moe’s briefing.
“Scott Moe and Jason Kenney put politics above people’s health. It did not have to be this way.”
The City of Saskatoon, the Saskatchewan Medical Association and the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses have also asked the province to restrict gathering sizes.
On Thursday, Saskatchewan reported 650 new COVID-19 cases — the highest one-day total in the province since the start of the pandemic.
However, a note from the government said 241 of the confirmed cases date back to Sept. 22 and had previously not been entered in the provincial database.
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The province also reported four new deaths on Thursday, raising the death toll to 737.
Meili said one in seven deaths in Saskatchewan since the start of the pandemic has occurred in the last month.
He said it was preventable.
“Saskatchewan leads all provinces in COVID case rates and death rates,” Meili said.
“Scott Moe needed to ask for federal supports weeks ago and should have implemented evidence-based public health measures to protect Saskatchewan families this weekend. He should have announced this today.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has promised to provide any support necessary to help Saskatchewan with its COVID-19 crisis.
Trudeau and Moe spoke on Sept. 29 about cases in the province, increasing vaccination efforts and what the province needs to overcome the fourth wave of the pandemic.
On Thursday, Moe didn’t rule out asking the federal government for aid in the coming days, but added he is realistic as to what can be provided.
“In Alberta, the provisions that (the federal government) provided … made a total difference of about eight ICU beds on a per capita basis. That would be about two ICU beds in Saskatchewan,” Moe said.
“Does it make a difference? Yes, but we’re realistic about the scope of what that difference is and what we’re facing here and what we do require in the way of very specialized human resources in our ICU departments.”
He also blamed the surge in cases, record-breaking hospitalization rates and surgery delays on people who are not getting vaccinated.
The province reported Thursday that 76.4 per cent of patients in hospital were not fully vaccinated.
“Seventy-five to 80 per cent of our hospitalizations are people that are unvaccinated,” he said.
“They’re tying up health-care services that other folks may need for other reasons.”
Moe, however, did not completely rule out bringing in new measures.
“I would say that nothing is ever off the table as we find our way through what is now the fourth wave of COVID-19,” he said.
“There’s no decisions that would ever be not on the table, so to speak.”