Saskatchewan’s Chief Medical Health Officer says there has been a five per cent rise in vaccines for both first and second doses, but it varies across the province. The larger cities are seeing higher vaccination rates than rural areas and the far north. Dr. Saqib Shahab points to Southeast and Central East Saskatchewan, which have had some outbreaks in the past, but the number of cases was relatively low, until the fourth wave. He says, “It just goes to show that if you have 30 to 40 per cent of your population unvaccinated, 12 and older, you can still see substantive waves.”

The Chief Medical Health Officer urges everyone to continue to follow all the safety protocols because there are five months of winter ahead of us. Shahab adds there are around 125,000 children not eligible to be vaccinated and just under 300,000 people 12 and older who aren’t vaccinated yet.

Although the number of COVID-19 cases in Saskatchewan is going down, there are still pressures in the health care system because the hospitalizations remain high. Dr. Shahab explains that when case numbers go down, it takes two to three weeks for that to reflect in hospitalizations and the last to see any decrease is the number of COVID cases in an ICU. He adds that although case numbers are coming down, one factor could be the number of tests being done is also lower.

(CJWW)