At the latest COVID-19 update in Regina, Premier Scott Moe and chief medical health officer Dr. Saqib Shahab announced the expansion of the public health order for Regina.
“The case numbers in Saskatchewan continue to trend in two different directions,” said Moe. While the rest of the province continues to trend down, it is those rising Regina numbers that are most concerning, due to the rise of transmission from variants in the area.
"Today we are at a challenging moment in this pandemic," said Moe. "The rise of the variant cases means that we have to continue to be extremely cautious, in particular here in Regina, but I would say extremely cautious in communities across this province. That is, until we are able to get a whole lot more people vaccinated."
According to the province’s news release the following measures are effective immediately in Regina and area:
All private indoor gatherings in the Regina area are prohibited immediately. Regina and area residents may not expand their household "bubble". All indoor gatherings are restricted to immediate household members only.
Persons who live alone and single parents of minor children are permitted to meet with one consistent household of less than five individuals. Caregivers, support personnel and tradespersons who are not a member of the household are not included in the maximum number of people allowed in that household.
Effective at 12:01 a.m., Sunday March 28:
All restaurants and bars must close for in-person dining; take-out and delivery is permitted.
Event venues, including banquet and community halls, conference facilities, arts venues, museums, libraries, live theatre, cinemas, arcades, bowling and science centres, or any non-essential indoor locations that had limits of 30 individuals are not permitted to operate at this time.
As well, a Regina and area travel advisory is now in effect, effective immediately:
Travel is not recommended in or out of the Regina area unless absolutely necessary.
It is strongly recommended all individuals in the Regina area who are able to work from home do so. The Deputy Minister to the Premier and President of Crown Investments Corporation of Saskatchewan have both reinforced to all ministry and crown permanent heads that employees in the Regina area that are able to work from home should work from home.
Places of worship in the Regina will remain at the current capacity level, which is a maximum of 30 individuals.
This is in effect for the city of Regina and area including: Belle Plaine, Pense, Grand Coulee, Lumsden Beach, Regina Beach, Craven, Lumsden, Edenwold, Pilot Butte, White City, Balgonie, Kronau, Davin, Gray, Riceton, RM of Lajord, RM of Edenwold, RM of Sherwood, RM of Pense and the RM of Lumsden.
For the rest of the province the current orders remain in place. All orders are in effect to April 5, when the orders will be reviewed, but Moe noted at the press conference that at that time those orders are likely to be extended again.
"Despite all our best efforts of everyone in Regina, the numbers have continued to climb, necessitating the need for additional measures," said Dr. Shahab.
While the rest of the province was trending down, "we need to stay the course" over the next four to six weeks, he said.
"But unfortunately in Regina, we are back to the restrictions that were in place 14 December," said Dr. Shahab. He added that the measures that had been in place for months in Regina "were failing in the last few weeks, and so that's why some further restrictions had to be put in place.""
There was more positive news about the vaccine rollout. It is leading the nation, Moe said, in both per capita as well as the percentage of vaccines being delivered. Nearly 150,000 shots have been administered in the province and Moe said the system could handle more and go even faster if they were able to access vaccines.
The Regina drive-thru clinic has been "a huge success" said Moe, and unfortunately they have now completely used up all their Astra-Zeneca doses there. The drive-thru has had to close until additional vaccines are obtained.
Canada is due to receive another 1.5 million Astra-Zeneca doses by the end of the month and Moe said they are ready for that arrival. That would amount to 45,000 doses for Saskatchewan.
That would allow the Regina drive-thru to re-open and there would be the opportunity to open more clinics in Saskatoon, Moose Jaw and Yorkton.
Their next batch of 36,000 Pfizer vaccines is due to arrive today, which would be their largest batch to date. The next Moderna shipment is expected later this week.
“We are going to get to the end of this pandemic,” said Moe, but “we aren’t there yet.”
