SEIU-West members and leaders say they are concerned that the premier’s decision to relax COVID-19 restrictions is premature, and guided by politics rather than science, or the needs of our health care system.

President Barb Cape says, “It’s too soon to let our guard down like this.” She says, “The signs that the second wave is subsiding aren’t strong enough to justify relaxing restrictions. With the rise of the variants and lower testing numbers, we need to keep our public health restrictions in place for just a little longer to see if our efforts are really working.”

The SEIU says Chief Medical Health Officer Dr. Saqib Shahab and Saskatchewan Health Authority CEO Scott Livingstone, have both expressed concern about the impending risk of a third wave of hospitalizations, especially among younger people and those unvaccinated.
Cape says, “Ignoring the advice of two of your top advisors doesn’t seem like a sound way to go about protecting the people you were elected to serve.”

The union says, though Saskatchewan’s rate of COVID hospitalizations has fallen to levels not seen since Christmas, they are still the highest per capita in Canada, and the number of COVID patients in ICUs remains high.