REGINA – A large swath of Saskatchewan will have to wear mandatory masks starting Friday..Starting Friday, everyone entering an indoor public space in Regina, Saskatoon, and Prince Albert must wear a mask to try and prevent the spread of coronavirus..Premier Scott Moe made the announcement Tuesday on the advice of chief medical health officer Dr. Saqib Shahab..The province had 24.6 new cases per week from Oct. 5 to Oct. 12, rising steadily to 72.7 from Oct. 27-Nov. 2. Tests per week have also risen from about 15,400 to nearly 18,000 during that time..“We’re at a little bit of a fork in the road here in Saskatchewan,” Moe said. “Let’s take a different path. Let’s re-evaluate what we’re doing each and every day.”.The mask mandate lasts 28 days and won’t be re-evaluated until then..Business owners won’t be held liable for rebellious customers who refused to don a mask.. Defying crackdown, hundreds march against lockdowns in Calgary .“We’re not going to have a bunch of COVID cops travelling across the province enforcing mask use in our public spaces,” said Moe..Masks won’t be required in homes, parks, private offices and workspaces without public access, university labs, and people exercising in gyms and similar places. The mask mandate won’t apply in schools either, as school divisions make their own rules..Province-wide private gathering limits will also drop from 15 to 10 on Friday. Private funerals and weddings must comply with these limits, while bars and restaurants will not..A “Make Masks Mandatory in Saskatchewan!” petition launched three months ago at Change.org still has less than 3,900 names. By comparison, the “No Masks Saskatchewan” Facebook group has 4,600 members and had 123 new posts Wednesday..Since Oct. 28, Regina transit passengers were required to wear masks. In August, Saskatoon mayor Charlie Clark and Regina Mayor Michael Fougere called on the province to mandate masks..“It’s best to have a province-wide application, not a patchwork for different municipalities,” Fougere said at the time..The province told Fougere they would not oppose a city bylaw mandating masks, but Fougere admitted it would be met with backlash..Mitchell Howse, who is challenging Fougere for the mayor’s chair November 9, said he prefers personal choice..“Why should the government tell you what to wear?” Howse told the Leader-Post..“What’s next? Will they tell you to wear body pods and where does it end? It comes down to the free market. I wouldn’t mandate it, but I would leave it open to the individuals and the businesses to decide..“What would happen is the local economy would fragment into two categories — one being for masks and one for no masks. For those businesses that choose to have a masks policy, customers that only want to wear masks and only feel comfortable wearing masks can go to those businesses and vice versa.”.As of Tuesday, the province reported just 81 new infections and 97 recoveries. Twenty-nine of the new cases were in Saskatoon and just 10 in Regina. Twenty-seven COVID-19 positive people were in hospital, seven of them in intensive care..By Nov. 5, the province had 799 active cases of COVID-19, 2,584 recoveries and 25 deaths of people who had the virus..A CDC report in August showed that only 6 percent of those who died with COVID-19 had no other health conditions or contributing causes..Lee Harding is the Saskatchewan correspondent for the Western Standard
REGINA – A large swath of Saskatchewan will have to wear mandatory masks starting Friday..Starting Friday, everyone entering an indoor public space in Regina, Saskatoon, and Prince Albert must wear a mask to try and prevent the spread of coronavirus..Premier Scott Moe made the announcement Tuesday on the advice of chief medical health officer Dr. Saqib Shahab..The province had 24.6 new cases per week from Oct. 5 to Oct. 12, rising steadily to 72.7 from Oct. 27-Nov. 2. Tests per week have also risen from about 15,400 to nearly 18,000 during that time..“We’re at a little bit of a fork in the road here in Saskatchewan,” Moe said. “Let’s take a different path. Let’s re-evaluate what we’re doing each and every day.”.The mask mandate lasts 28 days and won’t be re-evaluated until then..Business owners won’t be held liable for rebellious customers who refused to don a mask.. Defying crackdown, hundreds march against lockdowns in Calgary .“We’re not going to have a bunch of COVID cops travelling across the province enforcing mask use in our public spaces,” said Moe..Masks won’t be required in homes, parks, private offices and workspaces without public access, university labs, and people exercising in gyms and similar places. The mask mandate won’t apply in schools either, as school divisions make their own rules..Province-wide private gathering limits will also drop from 15 to 10 on Friday. Private funerals and weddings must comply with these limits, while bars and restaurants will not..A “Make Masks Mandatory in Saskatchewan!” petition launched three months ago at Change.org still has less than 3,900 names. By comparison, the “No Masks Saskatchewan” Facebook group has 4,600 members and had 123 new posts Wednesday..Since Oct. 28, Regina transit passengers were required to wear masks. In August, Saskatoon mayor Charlie Clark and Regina Mayor Michael Fougere called on the province to mandate masks..“It’s best to have a province-wide application, not a patchwork for different municipalities,” Fougere said at the time..The province told Fougere they would not oppose a city bylaw mandating masks, but Fougere admitted it would be met with backlash..Mitchell Howse, who is challenging Fougere for the mayor’s chair November 9, said he prefers personal choice..“Why should the government tell you what to wear?” Howse told the Leader-Post..“What’s next? Will they tell you to wear body pods and where does it end? It comes down to the free market. I wouldn’t mandate it, but I would leave it open to the individuals and the businesses to decide..“What would happen is the local economy would fragment into two categories — one being for masks and one for no masks. For those businesses that choose to have a masks policy, customers that only want to wear masks and only feel comfortable wearing masks can go to those businesses and vice versa.”.As of Tuesday, the province reported just 81 new infections and 97 recoveries. Twenty-nine of the new cases were in Saskatoon and just 10 in Regina. Twenty-seven COVID-19 positive people were in hospital, seven of them in intensive care..By Nov. 5, the province had 799 active cases of COVID-19, 2,584 recoveries and 25 deaths of people who had the virus..A CDC report in August showed that only 6 percent of those who died with COVID-19 had no other health conditions or contributing causes..Lee Harding is the Saskatchewan correspondent for the Western Standard
