Despite voicing earlier optimism about maybe easing COVID-19 restrictions, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe says that likely isn’t now going to happen.
Moe made the comment one day after Alberta announced strict new COVID-19 restrictions and Manitoba extended its current health orders to January.
“It would be improbable. I don’t know that we’re going to be able to relax the restrictions that we have in place,” he said Tuesday outside the legislature.
“The measures that we enacted on Nov. 27 on top of the measures that we had up until that point in time are working, but our levels are still too high here in the province.”
Moe said nothing is off the table, but he remains strongly opposed to the idea of a circuit breaker lockdown.
Opposition Leader Ryan Meili says Moe acted too slowly to bring in the new measures and the government should have closed down non-essential businesses several weeks ago.
“The decisions that he’s made from when this started to rise in early October really show this is about politics,” Meili said.
“He’s said, ‘I don’t want more restrictions, I don’t want anything that will get in the way of business,’ and as a result… things (are) much worse for businesses and resulted in so many more people in hospital and so many more lives lost.”
The province’s current public health measures are in effect until Dec. 17.
It includes mandatory masking in all public places, a limit of five people at private gatherings at homes and limiting outdoor gatherings to 30 people.
Plans for what happens after that date are expected next week.
— With a file from The Canadian Press
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