The Saskatchewan government is easing some of its public health measures brought in to slow the spread of COVID-19.
Starting Tuesday, individual households can create a bubble from up to three households to a maximum of 10 individuals in a home at any one time.
“But we still need to be very careful,” said Premier Scott Moe during a briefing.
“The fact remains that the more close contacts each of us has, the more chance we have of contracting and spreading COVID-19.”
Health officials said the household bubble must remain consistent and must be contained to the same individuals.
However, they are urging people to exercise caution and consider the overall risk of COVID-19 before expanding their household bubble.
Concerns they stated people should consider include a senior living in the household, adults working in essential services and children attending school.
They also said people 50 years of age and older should keep their contacts only to their household until they are vaccinated.
Barb Cape, president of SEIU-West, is concerned the decision is being driven by politics and not science.
“It’s too soon to let our guard down like this,” Cape said in a statement.
“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.”
Saskatchewan banned household gatherings on Dec. 17, 2020, except in limited circumstances.
The province is also easing the restrictions on worship services.
Starting March 19, places of worship are allowed up to 30 per cent of capacity or 150 people, whichever is lesser.
All masking protocols remain in place, however, clergy may remove their mask while officiating provided three metres of distancing is maintained.
All other public health measures remain in place and are scheduled to expire on March 19.
Moe hinted those measures may last a while longer.
“Most Saskatchewan businesses are open and operating safely under the current public health orders that we have had in place for some time,” Moe said.
“Those public health orders will remain in place for the time being, but our goal is to remove some restrictions on businesses in the coming weeks.”
Moe also said they are working with sports organizations on allowing seasonal sports and recreational activities, but with no target date for those to start.
“As Saskatchewan continues to see our case rates and hospitalizations rates stabilize, and as we increase the pace of our vaccinations… we will be actively loosening restrictions in these areas, as well as some others, in the next number of weeks.
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