All Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) facilities no longer have to make people wear masks or keep a certain distance from them. This was announced by the province on Tuesday.
“In our health care facilities, we’ll go back to the way things were before. So, basically, there is no need for masks and facilities, “The province’s minister of rural and remote health, Everett Hindley, said this on Monday.
Hindley said the change would happen on Thursday, but the province said on Tuesday that it would happen right away.
Hindley said that the decision was made after talking with the SHA, the province’s Chief Medical Health Officer Dr. Saqib Shahab, and the SHA’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Susan Shaw.
Masks will only be needed at SHA facilities in places where they were before the pandemic, like operating rooms.
Private doctors’ offices can still ask people to wear masks if they want to.
The province said in a news release that staff and visitors will still have to wear masks and personal protective equipment like gowns or globes when there are outbreaks or in certain high-risk clinical areas.
Hindley said that they decided to get rid of the mandate after learning more about the virus.
Hindley said, “We want to make sure that we take the same precautions with it as we do with every other respiratory illness we know of.”
Data and stories show that people want to get back to normal
The results of a CBC commissioned poll seem to indicate that a large part of the provincial population only wears masks when required.
The poll was done by the Canadian Hub for Applied and Social Research at the University of Saskatchewan from March 2 to March 10. There were 400 people who filled out the survey, so the margin of error was +/- 4.90 percent 19 times out of 20.
About 10% of the people who took the poll said they never wear a mask, while nearly 49% said they only wear one when they have to, like in hospitals or care homes.
Compared to that, 12% said they always or often wear a mask.
After the COVID-19 pandemic, half of the people polled said that the province is back to normal or almost back to normal.
Hindley said that people from all over the province have told him over and over that they want the mask rule at SHA facilities to end.
“I know that I’ve gotten a few phone calls from health care workers asking for this as well,” he said.
Even though Saskatchewan said there were more COVID-19 deaths in 2022 than in any other year of the pandemic, this news came out.
COVID-19 deaths have also kept happening in the province in the first three months of 2023. The province’s CRISP reports say that from January 1 to March 25, 137 people died from COVID-19.
SK Vax Wallet app endin
The province also announced that it will be decommissioning the SK Vax Wallet app used to display COVID-19 vaccination records.
Even though the province stopped requiring proof of vaccination or a negative test to enter a business in February 2022, people who wanted to could still use the app.
The app will no longer accept updates after April 17, 2023. On April 30, you will no longer be able to download it.
The Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) said on Tuesday that vaccination records will still be available on MySaskHealthRecord and can be printed or saved on a mobile device.