Time to talk about pandemic ‘finish line,’ Moe says

One day after receiving his COVID-19 vaccination, Premier Scott Moe says now is the time to start talking about the pandemic’s endpoint.

“I think it’s incumbent on leaders to now start having a conversation publicly on, you know, where are the yardsticks and … where are the finish lines for this?” Moe said during an appearance on Gormley on Friday.

The premier’s comments came as the province has seen its seven-day average of daily new cases climb to 284. The seven-day average of daily new cases is 23.4 per 100,000 population.

Hospitalizations have also risen since mid-March to 188, although they remain below the peak of 238 in February.

On the flip side, eligibility for the province’s vaccine appointment booking system has dropped to 48 years of age and over, and everyone between the ages of 48 and 54 can attend a drive-through or walk-in vaccination clinic in the province. In Regina, the drive-through clinic was accepting those aged 46 to 54 on Friday.

This week, the Saskatchewan Health Authority blamed large gatherings for a spike in COVID-19 variants in the southwest part of the province.

In the coming days, Moe says people can expect to hear a message from the government about why public health measures are in place and for what objective.

“We’re adhering to the public health measures. We’re going out and getting vaccinated when it’s our turn by the vast majority. And so, to what end are we doing all of this for?” he said.

Regarding what would trigger additional health measures or loosen them, Moe did not give away any firm benchmarks. Instead, he says the the Ministry of Health and chief medical health officer rely on a “number of variables” such as location of outbreaks, the cause of those outbreaks and whether variants are involved.

“It’s no set variable, or no set pipeline of inputs, if you will,” he said.

Moe’s comments about a “finish line” diverge from those of his health minister, Paul Merriman, who when expressing disappointment about a party in the southwest said the virus is still very much active.

“It just goes to show that COVID is still in most communities; it’s out there. We’ve had very low numbers in the southwest part of the province in (the) Maple Creek-Swift Current area and it takes one event like this to start up another superspreader event,” Merriman said Thursday.

Moe gets first shot

While it’s still unclear when an end to the pandemic will come, Moe took a hopeful step when he was vaccinated Thursday.

The 47-year-old premier went to the drive-through clinic at Evraz Place in Regina.

Speaking to reporters at the legislative building Friday, Moe recapped how it made him feel to get the shot.

“I’ve never felt better,” he said with a laugh. “It probably meant a little bit more to me after than I realized.”

He thanked the clinic’s health-care workers for the work they’ve done and reiterated that vaccines will play a big part in reaching the pandemic’s finish line.

“We knew that one of the steps out of this pandemic, ultimately, is to get a vaccine,” Moe said. “For me, my first shot was yesterday, and it does make you think a little bit that we are one major step closer to … finding our way back to what is normal.”