The Saskatchewan Public Health Order, and the restrictions within, have been extended once again.
The restrictions were set to expire at the end of the week, but will now be in place until March 19th. No new guidelines have been added, however.
In-home gatherings are still limited to just the immediate family, with single people being able to visit one consistent household of fewer than five individuals. Caregiver, co-parenting situations and in-home support services will also continue as they have been.
When it comes to an outdoor gathering, groups of ten are still allowed if people can maintain physical distancing. Inter-provincial travel is still highly discouraged, and visits to all long-term care and personal care homes are only open for compassionate reasons.
For businesses, mandatory masks and increased sanitation are still in play, along with existing smaller capacity rules. Stores will keep customers at 50 per cent of fire code capacity, and 25 per cent for large retail locations.
Alcohol sales are still being cut off at 10 PM in licensed establishments. For all restaurants, seating is limited to four per table, with two feet of buffer space if there is a barrier, three if there is not.
All places of worship must reduce capacity to 30 people, including wedding, funeral, and baptismal services. No food or drink may be present or served.
Primer Scott Moe said in his Tuesday briefing that while the measures have be working in reducing COVID-19 cases, work needs to continue the downward trend.
A full list of business guidelines and restrictions can be found on the Saskatchewan Government’s website.
More medical professionals entered into Phase One of vaccination priority
The Saskatchewan Government also announced Tuesday that more medical professionals will be bumped up to phase one vaccination.
In addition to health care workers in emergency departments, intensive care units, COVID-19 ward staff or testing and assessment employees, these medical professionals can get their vaccines are part of the current phase:
- Anesthesia or operating room personnel
- Hemodialysis staff
- Vaccination teams
- Radiology technicians
- ECG/echo staff
- Phlebotomy/lab workers handling COVID-19 specimens
- Home care providers
- Staff in all other critical care areas
Health care workers involved in Phase Two of the vaccine rollout will also be included as part of phase one now. These include up to 2,600 physicians and 1,200 pharmacists. Other SHA health care providers will be added in as well. In total, the province says, this will add an estimated 11,500 people to the phase one vaccination.
Phase two, including the public being vaccinated, has not had its timeline changed, and will go ahead according to schedule, the Government says.
