With COVID-19 cases declining recently in Saskatchewan, the provincial government says there isn’t a need to introduce restrictions for gatherings at this time.

They are hopeful that the reduced cases will soon lead to less hospitalized cases as well.

Health Minister Paul Merriman says they won’t be implementing further restrictions right now with the measures including the QR code and vaccine passport proving to be a success so far from their perspective. “I think mainly because of what we have done with the QR code and with our restrictions that are in place we’ve seen them, it’s obviously worked it’s down over 60% since our highest numbers so it is working.”

With the numbers declining, Merriman added they wouldn’t rule out exploring installing gathering restrictions if the current trend doesn’t continue. “Further restrictions right now, I don’t think they are warranted but if we something change in the near future where our numbers climb up significantly then we have to look at that, obviously the restrictions that we have in place are complimented the QR code and the proof of vaccination are working.”

While cases numbers are starting to decline, medical health officers says it’s still too early to not ignore implementing gathering restrictions. Provincial NDP leader Ryan Meili says we siding with the advice of the medical health officers in the province. “I listen to the experts, I listen to Dr. Shahab, I listen to Dr. Neudorf, and the others who say that having gathering restrictions in place would reduce mixing, would result us getting far fewer people in ICUs more quickly.”