Premier Scott Moe announced on Wednesday during the daily COVID-19 update the province will be extending the state of emergency another two weeks and also elaborated on plans for reopening Saskatchewan.
鈥淭his reinforces that even as we review options for a potential phased-in approach to reopen Saskatchewan, we are still in a state of emergency,鈥� said Moe.
鈥淲e must not be complacent. We must remain vigilant,鈥� he added.
Moe also said when it comes to reopening Saskatchewan, the province is looking at a list of businesses that will be allowed to open once again.
鈥淲e鈥檙e looking specifically to businesses and services that would be low risk,鈥� said Moe.
Moe said the phased-in plan starts with continuing to have strong numbers in terms of confirmed cases to recoveries. He added the province will not be reopening the economy in one fell swoop.
鈥淚t will be contingent on the people of this province doing exactly what they have been doing over the course of the last number of weeks,鈥� said Moe.
Additionally, Moe said the province will not consider lifting travel and gathering restrictions, or restrictions in long-term care facilities anytime soon.
Moe said the Grey Cup which is scheduled to take place in Saskatchewan could be at risk given the current gathering restrictions.
鈥淚f we were to start to expand that it wouldn鈥檛 be to the 10 or 15,000 that would allow for those types of sporting events to go on,鈥� said Moe.
Moe added the gathering restrictions would go up the same way they went down meaning going from 25 to 50 as opposed to 25 to 1,000.
鈥淐OVID-19 is here for a while. [It will be] a number of months for sure before we are able to have access to a vaccine,鈥� said Moe.
鈥淲hat we are looking to do is to open up some segments of our economy so we can have a functioning economy in the province, and have a point where we can actually start to recover,鈥� he added.
Leader of the Official Opposition Ryan Meili said earlier on Wednesday it is far too soon to start talking about reopening Saskatchewan.
鈥淚t is far too soon for the premier to be sending mixed messages to talk about re-opening when we are still not handling everything we should be handling in terms of the immediate pandemic response,鈥� said Meili.
Moe added there will be a more in-depth approach to reopening Saskatchewan released next week.
Currently there are 304 cases of COVID-19 in Saskatchewan with 205 people who have recovered and four deaths.
