Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said that the province plans on ramping up COVID-19 testing capacity in the province, despite having the second highest test rate in the country, behind only Alberta.
Moe repeated that the measures put in place in the province are showing positive results.
“Low numbers of new cases, alongside high numbers of tests, means that our efforts to reduce the spread of COVID-19 are working,” said Moe. “It serves as an encouragement for each of us in this province to remain diligent in our individual efforts.”
Moe said that premiers across the country are trying to unite their efforts to fight COVID-19 and would take a message of unity into a conference call with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau later Thursday.
During the call, Premiers are set to discuss issues like procurement of PPE.
Moe announced that the Saskatchewan Health Authority will brief the province on their models of the spread of COVID-19, starting next week, adding he wants to be as transparent as possible with Saskatchewan residents.
“There are projections and modelling that are being done here, and there are projections and modeling that are being done across this nation to try and predict and plan for the number of cases we may have, and the number of hospitalizations that we may have,” said Moe. “I expect that what you will see, will be a wide range of scenarios.”
Moe added that the range will due to the fact there are many factors that make modeling the spread difficult.
Provincial Chief Medical Health Officer, Dr. Saqib Shahab said that the province is at a critical point in the fight against the virus.
“We have seen significant surges, not just in Europe, but in other parts of North America as well, and so far, we appear to be fairly stable,” said Shahab. “It’s really important that we continue to maintain that discipline for the next little while and make sure that we remain as low as we can in terms of our daily case numbers.”
Dr. Shahab also confirmed that six more medical personnel have tested positive for COVID-19, in addition to the eleven cases related to a curling bonspiel in Edmonton.
