The official opposition NDP says Saskatchewan is the only province not delaying a restart to in class learning amid a surge of Omicron cases in the country. And while Saskatchewan has not provided a case update since December 31st, there had been a record high number of new cases of COVID-19. There were 735 reported on Friday which came one day after the province announced changes to testing and isolation.
Premier Scott Moe sent an email to media on Friday to respond to the case numbers, saying again, as he had during a COVID briefing update Thursday, that the province should expect higher case numbers because the Omicron variant is more contagious that other strains of the coronavirus.
Moe said, “But the more important numbers we are tracking are hospitalizations and ICU admissions,”
On Thursday the province announced that positive results from a rapid antigen test can be considered as accurate so residents don’t need to confirm with a PCR test.
At that time Moe admitted that the change would affect the accuracy of case counts from the province.
NDP leader Ryan Meili and Education Critic Carla Beck called on the Sask. Party government to immediately delay this week’s return to classrooms until next week and create a comprehensive Omicron strategy so Saskatchewan families are no longer flying blind into potential disaster.
The NDP pointed to Ontario announcing yesterday a suite of new measures including moving to online learning schools, citing modelling indicating the province’s hospitals could be overwhelmed again.
Meili says, “It’s beyond comprehension that the premier refuses to learn from his fourth wave failures. He’s given up. Not only is he actively downplaying the real threat and endangering our healthcare system by doing nothing but he’s also putting the safety of our kids at risk,
The NDP leader also warning that letting Omicron run wild in our schools will lead to our healthcare system being overrun and lives being needlessly lost. Once again, this Premier is choosing politics, not the health of the people he represents.
