Sask's Health Minister Paul Merriman says if people don't want to get vaccinated, then that's their choice.
"I think you're infringing on people's personal rights if you're mandating things." #covid19sk#skpoli
Health Minister Paul Merriman says the Sask government is not changing any direction since it ended the state of emergency on July 11, which also ended all restrictions/mandates.
The province continues to rely on personal responsibility. #covid19sk#skpoli
Sask's Health Minister Paul Merriman: "I haven't seen any modelling data as of lately."
Saskatchewan continues to have the highest test-positivity rate in the country, at 9.8%, with Canada's national average at 3.9%, latest Health Canada data shows. #covid19sk#skpoli
Merriman says there's higher transmission in ppl 19 + younger. Says they're not ending up in hospital & it's impacting youth "in a very mild way"
In Sask: 3.5% of all COVID-19 hospitalizations + 1.1 % of all COVID-19 ICU admissions have been ppl 19 + younger #covid19sk#skpoli
Sask's Health Minister Paul Merriman on hospitalizations:
"Most of the people that are in hospital are unvaccinated, so I guess the question is why are they unvaccinated and ending up in the hospital? That's their choice." #covid19sk#skpoli
The Sask government held their last public #COVID19SK news conference in early July.
Today Health Minister Paul Merriman addressed this saying: "We have been updating the public." +
"We are being as transparent, available as possible."
Health Minister Paul Merriman says the false-positive tests in Sask are "very unfortunate" and relates it to when CBC Edmonton mistakenly reported Merriman had COVID-19 (which was corrected). He says it was very stressful.
🧵 : Prior to the COVID-19 outbreak declared at Parkside @Extendicare on Nov. 20 (that killed 39 LTC home residents), the facility had 13 other outbreaks between January 2020 to July 2020:
.@saskhealth officials said in the ombudsman report that:
- Parkside @extendicare had more outbreaks than any other facility in Saskatchewan
- That's because residents were housed four in 1 room - The "infrastructure does not lend itself to disease control”
The Sask ombudsman's probe into Parkside @Extendicare said the facility’s 4-bed rooms were a major contributing factor to the outbreak. (That’s 4 people in 1 room). Here are highlights from the report....
Here’s what happened at Parkside @extendicare during Sask's deadliest COVID-19 outbreak, per the Ombudsman's 120-page report:
- In 62 days, 170 of 173 residents got COVID-19 (20% or 39 died from COVID-19, 3 others died from other causes)
- 132 staff infected #covid19sk#skpoli
Patient Zero at Parkside was a direct care worker:
- They worked 2 shifts prior to being symptomatic
- Then worked 8 shifts while symptomatic
- Didn’t seek testing right away when advised by doc to do so
- Was unmasked + close contacts w/ 3 other direct care workers
The first person to die from COVID-19 (Resident Zero) was linked to Patient Zero (who didn’t report symptoms to management), according to an Extendicare note sent to @saskhealth.
In April, 56 Saskatchewan residents died from COVID-19. They were fathers, mothers, parents, educators. They leave behind children, co-workers, family and friends.
Below are some of their stories from @CBCSask journalists. 1/8