For months now, Premier Scott Moe has been telling us we are near the COVID-19 finish line.
It is optimism that’s been appreciated — and, often, much needed — in this seemingly endless fight.
Unfortunately, it might have also turned that finish line into a bit of a mirage.
It’s frustrating that we still don’t actually know how far away that finish line is or what we have to do to get there.
So maybe it’s now time to give us a better idea of where that finish line is.
In fairness, neither Moe nor any government in Canada should be blamed for its past inability to provide such specifics during something as unpredictable as a once-in-a-century global pandemic.
Moe has long said that it’s vaccines that will lead us to that finish line — a pronouncement met with a fair bit of skepticism.
The Saturday before the long weekend, the Saskatchewan Health Authority delivered a record 18,568 vaccines. And then on Sunday, we broke that record with another 18,995 vaccinations.
That’s equivalent to three per cent of the entire province in just two days — a rate, Moe proudly noted, was likely the fastest vaccine distribution rate in the world.
Does anyone recall when we enviously looked south of the border and marvelled at how quickly U.S. President Joe Biden was getting his country’s population vaccinated? Well, Saskatchewan and then the entire nation will soon surpass the U.S. in percentage of the population vaccinated.
Credit goes to Moe, and certainly the Saskatchewan Health Authority and health system, including pharmacies, for getting shots in the arms of people as quickly as it has.
But maybe even some credit should go to the federal Liberal government (yes, a difficult thing to do out here, given our valid frustrations with Ottawa) for doing a better job of securing vaccine supply than we thought when Moe and the rest were complaining we didn’t have enough vaccines.
Saskatchewan’s vaccine rollout story is even more remarkable in light of a recent Angus Reid Institute poll showing 24 per cent here – the highest rate in nation – say they are hesitant to get vaccinated.
This is partly driven by the anti-mask, anti-vaxxer crowd, but it’s also being driven by young people not thinking they will catch COVID, older people not trusting certain vaccines like Astra Zeneca, and First Nations people and new Canadians not having easy access to the drive-thru clinics. Moe’s government needs to do more to address these issues.
Yet our vaccine success is driving down the COVID-19 numbers. Active cases and hospitalizations are now the fewest since March — numbers made even more remarkable by the fact we are sandwiched between Alberta and Manitoba where case numbers are still increasing.
Vaccines have been a literal shot in the arm, but all this begs questions:
What is the province’s vaccination rate or active daily case count that will allow us to fully open the province?
Moe has been talking about filling Mosaic Stadium sometime after the CFL opens in the August. What percentage of first and second doses are needed in Saskatchewan before we can see 30,000 at a ‘Rider game? What daily case count?
Moe and his government need to better define exactly where the finish line is.
