Saying that COVID is not ending, the province’s premier, in a video posted to Twitter Thursday, said “Government restrictions on your rights and freedoms will be ending soon.”

Scott Moe says Saskatchewan people understand the risk of COVID and are prepared to live with COVID. He also said eradicating COVID is not achievable and normalizing it is possible.

Moe describes the Omicron variant of COVID-19 as much less severe than what was seen previously, while acknowledging it could morph into different strains.

Calling it the “Living with COVID” plan, the Saskatchewan government will be retiring the COVID-19 dashboard as the province transitions to weekly COVID-19 updates beginning next week. The new updates will be presented each Thursday. The province also announced that PCR tests will be reserved for those deemed high-risk and will have to be booked in advance starting on Monday.

One of the last daily COVID-19 dashboard readings from the Government of Saskatchewan shows the province has eclipsed one thousand novel coronavirus-related deaths.  Four more deaths were reported on Thursday. Hospitalizations are at an all time high with 384 people receiving medical care, 37 of those individuals being treated in an ICU. There are 837 new cases of COVID-19.

NDP Leader Ryan Meili believes the changes made are another example of Premier Moe choosing politics over the people of Saskatchewan. Meili says Premier Moe is facing pressure within his party like the kind that Erin O’Toole felt within the Conservative Party.