Saskatchewan health advisors ask for more COVID-19 restrictions — again

Twenty-one medical well being officers — medical doctors charged with advising authorities leaders on methods to hold individuals protected — wrote to Saskatchewan Well being Minister Paul Merriman final week pleading for extra restrictions to cease the unfold of COVID-19.

It was their second try. They beforehand wrote a letter in August.

“The Medical Well being Officers of Saskatchewan (MHOs) want to specific our continued and rising concern in regards to the present state of COVID-19 in our province and the dearth of effectiveness of the present public well being measures,” it says.

“With out additional motion, it’s extremely possible that we are going to face even greater charges of hospitalization in coming weeks and threat well being system collapse, in addition to many extra preventable deaths.”

The medical doctors specify they aren’t asking for a full lockdown or faculty closures.

Within the letter, dated Oct. 21, they ask Merriman to impose gathering restrictions on personal indoor gatherings, specifying the province ought to prohibit unvaccinated and partially vaccinated individuals from gathering past their very own family for 28 days.

In addition they write that the federal government ought to restrict capability in venues, like these used for weddings and funerals, to 25 per cent in the event that they solely require necessary masks and never proof of vaccination.

The letter says these restrictions shouldn’t apply if the venues do require proof of vaccination.

The MHOs write the province ought to require proof of vaccination in additional venues total and that extra places shouldn’t settle for proof of a unfavorable check.

The medical doctors state faculties should be made safer with the intention to hold them open.

In addition they ask the federal government to state clearly the seriousness of the scenario and encourage Saskatchewan residents to cut back the variety of individuals with whom they’re assembly.

“We perceive that returning to those restrictions shouldn’t be what our inhabitants desires, or what our leaders wish to ponder, however with the well being system in disaster, the options are a lot worse.”

World Information reached out to Merriman’s workplace, in addition to the well being ministry and the Saskatchewan Public Security Company, which operates the province’s COVID-19 emergency operations centre.

None had been instantly out there for a response.

The province has not imposed new well being pointers because the letter was despatched. On Wednesday, Premier Scott Moe stated he wouldn’t accomplish that.

The letter was despatched after Moe introduced the province would switch ICU sufferers to Ontario.