Passports and booster shots: What’s new on the COVID front

Whether it be COVID-19 booster shots going to a second stage or businesses wrapping up their first weekend with the COVID passport system, there are a lot of developments on the COVID front to keep track of.

The second phase of booster shots began Monday, when anyone 80 years of age or older could receive a third vaccine dose as long as it was at least six months after their second dose.

Derek Miller, the Saskatchewan Health Authority’s emergency operations centre commander, told Gormley on Tuesday the booster shot is vital for preventing further outbreaks in care homes around the province.

“We have seen evidence that there is a waning immunity to some degree for older populations,” Miller said. “Our hope is that by bringing in the booster campaign that this will help with sustaining their immunity to this devastating virus.”

More age groups are expected to be eligible for their third doses in the coming weeks.

Family doctor expresses her concerns

Saskatchewan continues to reach new record highs for COVID-19 hospitalizations and intensive care admissions.

According to the Ministry of Health, as of Monday there were 325 COVID patients in the province’s health-care facilities, including 75 people in ICUs.

The previous record of 321 hospitalizations was set Sunday. The previous high of 72 ICU cases was recorded Thursday.

Family doctor Carla Holinaty has been an advocate for doctors in the province throughout the pandemic. She says doctors are desperate for a drop in cases.

“People are burning out, they’re tired, they’re exhausted and they’re struggling emotionally,” Holinaty told Morgan. “They are spending every day watching people die of a really horrible infection that in a lot of cases could have been prevented.

“We are asking a small group of people to take on more and more work, more and more hours, have fewer and fewer days off, and take on more patient loads while they are there.”

Holinaty believes misinformation continues to be one of the biggest causes in high case numbers.

“The groups of people that are still unvaccinated are sort of in two camps,” she said. “There are the people that will never consider being vaccinated no matter what because they’ve made up their mind, and no amount of trying to convince them is going to do a whole lot.

“But I do think there is a group of people who still aren’t sure. They’re the people who are maybe hearing a lot of misinformation on places like social media and they don’t really know what they want to do, but I think they’re afraid.

“Those are the people that I would really encourage to reach out to somebody like me or one of my family doctor colleagues to bring up the questions, the things that you’ve been reading on social media, and have us help walk you through what’s true and what’s not true.”

Police weigh in on the first weekend of vaccine requirements

Regina Police Chief Evan Bray says things have been “so far so good” in the first few days of new COVID rules.

“We’ve had a couple of cases where people were pretty worked up. But I think it’s just the tension, the anxiety and the emotion of what we’re all going through,” Bray said during Tuesday’s Greg Morgan Morning Show.

“It’s rare that we’ve been called. It’s often that people complain. I think that’s probably the easiest way to put it.”

Bray says the police have been receiving reports of some businesses choosing not to follow the new guidelines in place. Despite that, tickets have not been handed out — yet.

“We haven’t been out to businesses, however public health inspectors who work for the Saskatchewan Health Authority and the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency Enforcement Team have been going around and working on some compliance issues,” Bray said.

“To my knowledge, there hasn’t been any enforcement yet. It has really been about going out and educating people to gain compliance.”

Bray reiterated that if an issue at a business is serious enough, police officers will be dispatched.

“The police will be brought in if it got to the point where a business feared that there was a safety issue,” he said. “For the most part, I think most of that business compliance enforcement will be done by the two agencies.”

Despite nothing serious happening in Regina, the same can’t be said for Saskatoon after a business reportedly had serious issues with some customers in regards to the proof-of-vaccination rules.