Saskatchewan is planning to have 90 per cent of its medical staff who were redeployed during the fourth wave of the pandemic sent back to their home position by the end of November.

During a media briefing Thursday morning, Marlo Pritchard, President of the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency told reporters that beginning next week the goal is to 50 per cent of the staff back doing their home duties followed by 75 per cent the following week.

Derek Miller, Chief of Emergency Operations with the Saskatchewan Health Authority says around 450 staff who have been redeployed to contact tracing and contract tracing related-duties will be the staff the SHA will be mainly focusing on to move back over the coming weeks. The province is exploring options to have third-party companies conduct contact tracing.

During the update, Miller said 43 thousand SHA workers replied to the self-declaration for vaccinations when the call was made last month. Out of the number, around 1100 healthcare workers indicated that they would enter a monitored testing program. Miller added that they’re quite pleased with the number of individuals who have declared that they’re fully vaccinated.

The SHA is planning to accommodate up to five thousand workers in its testing program. The health authority is currently following up with six thousand employees to clarify their self-declaration.

In some cases, Miller said there were errors or names that were miss-matched. As for Saskatchewan residents receiving care in Ontario, 24 are currently receiving care while three have successfully been transferred back to Saskatchewan with another one expected to return Thursday.

Miller says autism services and some child psychology programs will resume on Remembrance Day.