Moe requests help during COVID-19 talk with Justin Trudeau

Premier Scott Moe is requesting additional support from the federal government to help Saskatchewan’s struggling health-care system amid the country’s worst surge of COVID-19 cases.

A day after Chief Medical Health Officer Dr. Saqib Shahab and the Saskatchewan Health Authority painted a bleak picture for the province moving forward, Moe said Thursday he spoke to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on the phone for some targeted support.

The biggest concern isn’t available beds in hospitals, it’s available workers. Moe’s top request was finding specialized health workers, such as respirologists and critical care aides.

“It isn’t a large number of thousands of people that would come in — let’s say the army or activating the Rangers. It’s a smaller number of very specific, highly trained individuals that we need. That request will be with the federal government shortly,” Moe said.

According to a report by The Canadian Press, Trudeau has promised to provide any supports necessary to help Saskatchewan deal with COVID.

A statement said Trudeau reiterated the federal government “remains ready to respond to any requests” from Saskatchewan for aid.

An SHA news release Wednesday said staff were being redeployed to critical care and other COVID-19 care services which “are required as a result of unprecedented hospitalization rates, with overall hospitalizations and admissions to ICU due to COVID nearly tripling over the last month.”

“We will not only not have Thanksgiving, at this rate we will likely not have Christmas and New Year. It will be a fall and winter of misery at the current rate that we will have high hospitalizations due to preventable illness,” Shahab said during Wednesday’s update.

“Other restrictions will likely have to come if our numbers don’t change.”

On a day when a record 601 new cases were added, the province also saw 10 more people die of the disease while a record 72 people remain in ICU. There are 307 COVID patients in Saskatchewan health-care facilities.

Moe said he is working with Ottawa to help increase vaccination numbers, especially in rural, remote and Indigenous communities “of predominantly federal jurisdiction.”

“We talked about partnerships,” Moe said, knowing local support, the SHA and Indigenous Services Canada will need to work together to get more people vaccinated.

“We had assurances the federal government would support that.”

Moe also wants to see not only more rapid tests arrive in Saskatchewan, but also a greater variety of tests approved by Health Canada.

Another issue Moe wants to see Ottawa help is with monoclonal antibody treatments and other early intervention treatments to help prevent some people from needing hospital care.

As recently as Monday, Moe said he hadn’t asked for help, but hinted that a formal request could be coming by the end of the week.

“We had a very specific ask. That list has not yet been submitted. The SHA is putting together that list as we speak,” Moe said.

As of Thursday’s available data, Saskatchewan leads the country in death rate over the past seven days, the highest rate of new cases and vaccine hesitancy (the lowest rate).

When asked to clarify Shahab’s “fall and winter of misery” comment, Moe dodged any specifics but said any decision from the province will have “as little impact on the people who have made the right decision (to get vaccinated) as possible.”

— With files from The Canadian Press